Not So Stark, Tony
by InkWalking
Summary: In the sixteen years of his life, Tony's never known who he is. He's never known anything other than foster homes, temporary guardians, and bad apartments when he reached the point of being over trying to rely on anyone else. A fateful encounter finally changes everything as the mysteries of his past come back to bite him and he finds himself suddenly in the care of the Avengers.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, everyone. Some things you need to know:**

 **-Tony disappeared when he was three during a robbery and is presumed to be dead**

 **-Tony is sixteen and (obviously) younger than the rest of The Avengers. There's just an extra generation added in so Steve knew Tony's grandfather**

 **-Everyone else is their normal ages and in The Avengers or SHIELD**

 **I do not own The Avengers or anything Marvel Universe related and this was not made with the intentions of making** **a profit.**

While he's not one to brag, Tony has to admit this is probably the largest amount of trouble he's gotten into in about ever. There have been some pretty big ones too. The exploding coffeemaker, the exploding, wow, a lot of them were about things he accidentally blew up.

It really starts off innocently enough. Okay, that's probably a lie. A dark stretch limo pulling up to him in a dark empty street shouldn't be judged as a good thing. The day itself had started off innocently enough, though. Tony got up, went out into the city, and got some money from some ATMs…That he didn't actually withdraw from his bank account per say since he doesn't have a bank account. So, yeah, nothing about this day was particularly wholesome.

Anyhow, to the limo.

Tony minds his business as much as he usually minds his business on the walk back to his hole of an apartment. He might spend a little too much rent money on parts for his "hobbies." Tony looks around and crosses into an alleyway to take the shortest route back. This is when all of his trouble begins.

Not long after he enters the alley, something else enters the alley. The sleek limo crawls it's way toward Tony and stops just ahead of him.

Tony attempts to pick up his pace, feeling more than just the twinge of fear for the usual mugger with a pipe. He pushes the money he had gotten earlier that day deeper into the pocket of his hoodie. It isn't that much because, let's face it, only newbs take more than 200 at a time. He wouldn't mess up any of the ATM codings, duh, but people nearby get suspicious when a bunch of hundreds slide out. Suspicion doesn't work out well.

He almost clears the limo when the front door is thrown open. Tony takes in the stereotypical muscle guy in front of him and steps back, looking over his shoulder.

He looks back to the man and does his best to assess the situation.

"Hey, there. Funny how we keep seeing each other, today." Tony says sarcastically. He had caught eye of a man earlier that day and unless there are multiple people too large to fit in an average door, it's the same guy. The sarcasm, well, it just comes naturally to pretty much however he might assess something.

Mr. Personality says nothing but jerks his head to something directly behind Tony.

Tony raises his eyebrow at the man and hesitates to look away. The classic get the guy to look away and then knock him out from some movie he had snuck into earlier that year came to mind.

The teen does jerks around, though, when he hears a cough from behind him.

"Hello, Mr. Jones." A lanky old man greets with a German accent. "I suppose the fates are in my favor to come across you again."

Tony's actually not tempted to laugh at the classic evil scientist German accent. Whether he likes it or not, this is actually a serious situation. Crap.

"Not interested." Tony tells Dr. Creepy. "Good luck with the next guy who comes around, though."

The old guys mouth morphs into what is probably his own most charming smile, making Tony want to shudder slightly. Dr. Creepy has the kind of smile that gets people to cross the road. Ten blocks away.

"Well, enough of this simple minded chatter. Get in the car, child." The man's voice hardens when he says child.

Tony has to appreciate the directness of Dr. Creepy. He reaches into his other hoodie pocket and pulls as quickly as he can while looking inconspicuous on a purposely loose thread.

"Child?" Tony starts, hoping to buy himself some time. "While I'm not feeling to much like handing over my I.D to you, I assure you I'm a perfectly reasonable age."

Tony leaves the man to decide what reasonable is and continues to pull at the lengthening length of thread in his pocket. For some reason people seem to react positively to the word reasonable.

"Victor, please help Mr. Jones into the limo." Dr. Creepy tells Mr. Personality, Victor, whoever he is.

Victor advances toward Tony. His steps seem to echo across the pavement.

As he comes closer, Tony notices a little insignia on Victor's black pocketed shirt.

Not wanting this to get any stickier than it already is, which is about super glue on a hot circuit board, Tony finally gets the thread completely out and reaches into the small pocket that has opened up.

The teen hears a beep from the button he had pushed on a metal cylinder and throws it toward the wall of muscle.

A flash of light erupts from the device along with sudden banging noises from all around the alley.

Tony darts to the side and curses at his own handy work. He might have made this one a little too strong. It takes him a couple of seconds longer than it should have to stagger around the corner so it didn't come to that much of a surprise to Tony when he feels Victor's big, stupid paw suddenly gripping his shoulder on an already slightly sore from an old bruise area.

He yelps at the pressure and lets himself fall backwards.

Victor must have be slightly surprised at the teen falling back so quickly, even for Tony's scrawny size, because his grip loosens. It gives Tony another chance to make a break for it.

With speed that comes from having to run from people a lot, Tony picks himself up and throws himself forward, making it to the other side of the street.

He continues on for a block before he makes the totally newb mistake, which really can be understood considering that most people are new to being almost all black limo and big muscle guy kidnapped, of trying to look back over his shoulder.

There's a reason that people say don't look down when you're climbing a mountain. It's not because if you do you might accidently trip over one of the many bottles that litter the street, but there is a reason. Tony does not have time for this reason because at the moment he does trip over a bottle while pulling a newb and looking over his shoulder.

He grunts as he hits the ground on his unfortunate shoulder. It always has to be the bad shoulder, doesn't it?

Soon the rest of him can be referred to as unfortunate as Victor the personality catches up and not so gently heaves the boy, okay more like effortlessly pulls, the boy over his shoulder.

Dr. Name Still Unknown has gotten into the driver street of the limo and pulls it up next to Victor and his new and deceptively smart captive.

"Why most it take you so long to capture one boy, Victor?" The German accented man asks him with disdain.

Victor opens his mouth but is cut off.

"Do not answer." He sighs and rubs his forehead as he makes his way back to his seat in the back of the limo.

Victor says nothing and opens the door opposite of his scorner. He deposits Tony into a seat. The door closes with a click.

Victor gets back into his seat in the front. A beep is heard over the speakers and a voice comes out into the cabin.

"Do hurry, Victor. This boy is not the only one to be followed today." The doctor says from his seat in back.

For a moment, the glint of a silver skull with six arms can be seen from somewhere inside the vehicle.

 **I hope you all enjoyed because more is on the way. R and R! I like questions, concerns, and compliments. Fine, critical criticisms also welcome.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, everyone. I love you people who have reviewed or followed or favorited this story so far but don't worry. If you haven't done it yet, I'll love you just as much as the others when you do. As always, I do not own anything Marvel. Enjoy.**

To say Coulson's day was about to turn around is an understatement. He spilt coffee on his tie in the morning. He had to deal with yet another false alarm on whether the new alien device they had recently found in the pacific ocean was going to blow up the world. Oh, he was just informed that Fantastic Four of all people just had to come to mess with that by the way. If it wasn't going to explode before, it probably will now. Also, someone took his sandwich from the locked fridge he kept hidden inside his own office. He suspects more than one person was involved in that. Now, though, it's noon and he gets called in to help with a last minute what should have been easy bag-and-grab. Oh, yeah, the reason it's turning around. His day is severely turning around because the mission was botched by the one and only Avengers and Coulson happened to recently have acquired a new Captain America trading card. Still unsigned.

Then and again, when he enters interrogation observation room six, he sees a group of people who do not seem to be be at their happiest. Barton and Romanoff are, sulkingly, sitting by each other in one corner. The almighty God of Thunder is twirling his hammer in the middle of the room with a slightly perturbed look on his face and Banner is sitting on a chair by the observation mirror, keeping one eye on some metal cylinder in his hand and one eye on...some kid in the interrogation room?

 ************************Eight Hours Ago************************

Tony would really prefer it if he could take his seat belt off or, possibly, the chain connecting his poor wrist to a not-suspicious-at-all hook on the side of the limo's super cozy chair. He would attempt to again vote for it's removal but apparently he doesn't get a vote in this situation.

Dr. Whatever is staring at him again. It's official. It does get worse than his smile. His stare is like...being stared at by a really creepy, old dude in an expensive to the point of looking cheap pair of sunglasses that he for some reason had put on as soon as he got into the limo. Okay, it's probably in case there's a second little cylinder that in Tony's other pocket.

"So," Tony starts. "I'll turn on some jams and you can have the first turn at sticking your head out the sunroof."

The doctor continues with his stare for another moment.

"Your flighty sarcasm in response to be putting in a situation much too far, what is the saying, over your head only re enforces that your height matches your maturity level." German tells him. Tony almost wishes he had a tissue, the guys voice is so nasally.

"So that's a no to sunroof?" Tony asks innocently.

"Let's just hope, for your sake, that your intelligence far exceeds that of the last man who was too smart for his own sake. Well, smart and loyal." The man reaches under the chair of his own side of the limo and pulls out a black rectangle. He lifts it out to Tony who reaches out to get it with his chained hand which is stopped with about a foot to go to the rectangle.

"Whoops. I think my leash needs to be loosened a little bit." Tony tells him.

"I can make this situation very painful for you." The man simply answers back.

Tony gulps and takes the black rectangle from with his free hand because he is one of the many human beings that doesn't enjoy pain.

He runs his hands over the smooth exterior, looking for some hint of what he's supposed to be doing with it because the doctor certainly didn't seem to be giving anything away. It doesn't take him long to find a little button on it's side. Like all sane, intelligent people in history, he presses the button.

The rectangle springs open to reveal itself to be a laptop. A very sleek and pretty, if Tony might say, laptop.

"Woah." Is all Tony can get out. This laptop is way beyond his no-pay grade. This laptop is way beyond his centuries markets. Point blank. If Tony had wanted to get his hands on anything like this before, provided this is a fantastic situation where Tony was amazingly rich, he would have to have built it himself.

The wonderful screen powers up with a wonderful whooshing sound that temporarily distracts Tony from the great big pile of mess he's stuck in.

That is, it distracts him till the big pile of mess decides to fake cough to get back Tony's attention.

"All I require from you is simple." Doctor Terrible starts.

Tony really wants to say something along the lines of him needing a least one person to friend him on Facebook but he's pretty sure that would lead to another threat of violence so he stays silent.

"You simple need to get into this laptop." The Doctor continues.

Tony looks down to the laptop. It's screen has a glowing green box in the center with the glowing word _Password_ above it.

"Well, what's the password? You see, you just have to enter it into this little box then pop. You're in." Tony tells the man.

"Let us just say that I've... forgotten it myself. I've had all my best men trying to crack in to it for months but you, though, you know what the password is. Don't you, boy?"

It takes a moment for the words to hit Tony. He had kind of been daydreaming about marrying the laptop in his hands.

"What?" Tony actually laughs out. "Okay, this is a joke. Right?"

"Do you consider this to be humorous?" The man asks.

"I'm going to leave out a comment about your accent for a second because there is no possible way I'd know the password to this. I've never seen it in my life." Tony says bluntly. The dudes clearly got the wrong guy here.

"You're a very intelligent child, Anthony. Not gifted, I'll give you that. You were never given anything at all." The man says and Tony suddenly feels an urge to punch him in the face. "One thing I'm very sure of, though, is that you have seen this laptop. You are the last one alive who knows how to access it. You just don't quite remember yet. Anyhow, I'm sure that problem can be relieved in one way or another."

"I would remember this beau," Tony is cut off by the limo jerking to a stop. Dr. Whatever takes his phone out of his pocket and presses speed dial two.

"Send in the backup unit." He tells whomever is on the other end of the line. "We have company."

The limo shakes slightly and it's obvious that something is going on outside the apparently soundproof, ultra darkened windows.

"This will just take a moment. SHIELD agents just aren't up to the same strict standards of Hydra anymore. It really takes some of the joy out of it." The man complains.

Tony wasn't quite sure how to respond to that and feels himself reaching into his pocket despite himself. SHIELD and Hydra are ringing enough bells in his head from his computer exploits to know that he isn't too fond about having any tea parties with either. An explosion that gets through even whatever this limos packing in the everything proofing has Tony really wishing his hand wasn't chained to the limo right now.

The doctor finally seems to be showing a slight amount of concern for the situation and takes out his phone again. He presses the familiar button two and waits for someone to answer. That someone doesn't.

The left limo door shakes. It's gonna give any second now.

"Well, this has been fun." Tony says in his best totally not freaking out tone cause he's totally not freaking out. The doctor's expression isn't helping him.

"You will have about twenty more seconds after I leave before the limo's systems will go completely down. Don't say I, at least, never gave you anything." The doctor says. The man adds a word in German that Tony guesses is not child appropriate and not so gracefully tears the laptop out of Tony's hand and flings himself against the other door. A couple of seconds later, he's out of the door with one last almost regretful look at Tony. It wasn't exactly as much the oh-I'm-leaving-my-good-friend-here-to-probably-be-eaten look as the I-really-don't-want-to-leave-this-bag-of-money-behind-but-the-getaway-car's-full look. Tony gets one short look at the chaos in the street before the door is slammed shut and the door seems to lock again. Was that a bullet or an arrow?

"What?" He shouts after the doctor. "He just left me chained to the inside of a locked limo during a gunfight."

Tony pulls at the chain desperately. During his one sided struggle, a glint on the floor catches his eye. A key.

He scrambles down and grabs it. His hands are shaking enough that it takes him three tries to get the key into the lock. By the end of the third try it's done, though, and he's free. Okay, not free. He's working on that next.

Seeing no better option, he follows in the footsteps of his recent best friend doctor and tries the opposite door handle. It's unlocked from the inside. After another second, or five, of gathering the guts he slams open the door. As soon as the darkness of the night hits him, he's flying. Then he hits a wall. A big, blue and red wall. Tony curses today's luck at finding himself on the concrete for the second time today.

"Are you okay, son?" The figure asks. Tony considers actually getting his act together enough to respond when he hears a familiar beep. Not wanting to have a hole burned through his jacket and, oh, his entire body he rips the device he had been carrying from his pocket, sparing no thought for the shreds he left his pocket as.

Blaring lights and sounds surrounding him again. This one might be even worse than the one before in the way that it's like ten times better. Tony's decided to curse his own awesome skill this time instead of his terrible luck.

Something really cold pricks his arm. Then, it's really warm or maybe it's still cold. Tony can't particularly tell at this point and actually doesn't really care to because, man, his eyes are heavy.

 *******************Present**************************************************

Clint "Hawkeye" Barton walks into Interrogation room six. To says he's not so happy about losing Doctor Albretch because someone set off a flash grenade or whatever Bruce was explaining on the ride back to base is an understatement. He's especially not happy because that someone is apparently a kid that he now has to interrogate. If Hydra's starting to recruit kids now, he swears he's gonna shove an arrow up their butts. It would be pretty easy to because no matter how many heads they have there's only one,"

Clint's thought is interrupted by the kid in question.

"I can totally explain." The kid tells him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, my beautiful readers. I have a new, shiny chapter here for you. Also, an exciting announcement is the recent addition of a very talented Beta, FanGirl13. Enjoy!**

Clint studies the kid in front of him. An obviously home-done haircut keeps his hair just grazing his eyes and a dark hoodie probably hides some usually objectionable stains. Hawkeye would have bet on the kid being a regular street rat until he sees the eyes. Those are the much rarer breed of eyes that you only see on a genius or a psychopath.

"Explain away." Clint asks, expecting a stuttered and confused response.

Tony doesn't do stuttered and confused. Okay, this might be a stuttered explanation but not a confused explanation. He's had nothing but time to think after the the whole unconsciousness.

"Okay, so I was walking down the alley between Barts and Steinstin street when this limo pulled into the alley beside me which is strange because that's a fantastic way to totally ruin a perfectly good limo."

Clint holds up his hand to stop the kid and actually stops himself for a moment to look down at the file on the table. Anthony Jones.

"Anthony." He starts and looks at the kid's visible wince at his name. "Tony, then. Why were you in the alley, Tony?"

"Oh, it's the fastest way to get to my apartment building." Tony, after getting over his loathing at being called Anthony, says. "Anyway, this huge guy gets out of the drivers seat."

"Wait a minute." Clint stops Tony again. "Why were you in the alley at night? Where are your parents?"

Tony shifts in his seat. No one had bothered to handcuff him or anything because, let's face it, the kid wasn't going anywhere and Capt had been the one to put him in here. He's a big softy when it comes to kids and Tony already had red marks on one of his wrists from something. Oh great, another thing Clint has to find out.

"Either in a grave or childless house somewhere because I've never met them before. I'm eighteen, though. Legally out of the system. You can check it on my file." Tony says. He might be exaggerating about two years on the age thing.

Clint raises his brow at him. Tony barely looks fifteen no matter what his file might say. He'll leave that for later, though.

"Okay, then. What does the big guy do after he gets out of the limo?" Clint asks.

"Okay. The big guy, Victor, he doesn't talk, like, he really doesn't talk. All he really does is drive and intimidate puppies or something. Oh, he also beats people up. You know, I really think he was you guy's main problem. The flash disarmer was a slight hindrance but really it was him and that speed dial backup team." Tony rambles until he notices Clint's stare. Wow, The Hawkeye is totally giving him the keep-on-topic look. "Long story, short. I'm, unwillingly, escorted into the limo. An old German guy gives me an I see dead people creepy speech and hands me a laptop he's sure I know the password to. I don't know the password. Then, you guys swoop in and,"

"There was a laptop?" Clint interrupts. "Did it look like a black box?"

Tony is visibly appalled.

"Black box? I could tell it was the pinnacle of all laptops and that's without even seeing the inner workings." Tony tells him.

"Oh, boy." Clint mutters and it's not about the kid's sudden burst of tech whatever. He's been through lots of tech whatever from Bruce already. The laptop sighting means that they have a new lead on it, but the lead takes them right to Dr. Albretch, who they had on just illegal arms dealing…with Hydra. The laptop is with Hydra. Fantastic.

Clint stands up from his chair and picks up Tony's file from the table.

"You'll be escorted to a room shortly and put under temporary...let's say it's witness protection." Clint tells the kid. He has a whole bunch of stuff to do now.

"Huh, you just believe me like that?" Tony asks. He was expecting the third degree.

"Just like that." Clint says and buzzes open the door.

Another thought strikes Tony.

"What do you mean witness protection?" He asks as the door slams shut.

Great, now Tony's stuck alone in the room. This has been a popular theme for his life recently.

Clint would love to think that he was leaving behind one of his problems when he slams shut the door, but something tells him he'll be seeing that kid again.

"Hydra has the laptop." He tells his waiting team. "It's still locked but for some reason they think that the kid, Tony's his name, knows the password."

"Does he know the password? The systems are too guarded to even consider hacking in without fear of setting off traps that would completely destroy whatever information it stores." Bruce tells them. "We'll be able to have complete access with the right password."

"Not sure." He answers.

"I would doubt it. The computers only just resurfaced and it was lost when he was even more of a kid than now." Natasha says.

"We need to find out. Soon." Bruce tells them. Tony could be their only hope at access.

"You should take handle of that, then." Steve tells Bruce. "The boy may just not know that he knows the password. Hydra's a lot of bad things but their information is somehow always good."

"Good luck. Tony has a...personality. Oh, and I think he might be a geek too. Who knows? Maybe you'll be nerd besties." Clint adds.

"You know, someday I'd like a friend who doesn't screw up our missions with flash disarmers as Anthony called it."

"Albretch was gone with or without it." Hawkeye shrugs.

"You know, Clint." Bruce says. "By definition nerds and geeks are very different types of people so by using them both in the same comparison you're really sending out an opposing message."

"You know, Bruce. You are so right. I should have a completely different set of words to describe you."

"Hey, we're a team. Bickering is one of the reasons that we lost the doctor today. Pull it together." Steve warns them.

"Are you scolding us?" Clint asks him. There's his own kind of warning in his tone.

"Captain, I might add that you were much of the cause of my so called bickering." Thor complains. "Some battles are not meant to be so thoroughly planned. They have to be free like the sweat that gathers on our brows. Well, mostly your brows."

"Look at you. Your bickering right now." Natasha tells them, clearly tired of the constant teresterone battles.

"Great." Coulson says. "This is going well."


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, guys. I've got the next chapter for you and it comes with a fun surprise. There's a new character toward the end that you should be able to recognize if you squint a little even though I've definitely made some changes.**

There's actually a secret panel on the wall. They must really want to highlight the whole this-is-a-secret-organization with their super cosy white rooms. The room itself comes equipped with a no-screws-or-detachable-pieces bed, a no-screws-or-detachable-pieces desk, and a no-screws-or-detachable-pieces bookcase. The bookcase doesn't even have any books. That's okay, though, because there's a secret panel on the wall and he will get it open.

The little lines forming a square on the wall above the bookcase should be able to entertain him for a while. Just finding the thing took him two hours of randomly looking around the room for some source of entertainment other than staring at the ceiling.

Okay. Entertainment that also distracts from his current predicament.

There must be some way to get it open without needing the nonexistent screws or detachable pieces. Unless somebody decided to punch the wall above the bookshelf so hard it broke through and they had to replace that one spot, it was made for a reason.

Tony tries to find some secret button first. Then he tries to pull and push on the box.

Maybe someone did punch that spot on the wall.

It's during the tugging on the box that doesn't particularly have anything the get a grip on, when he falls backwards off the bookcase. Unfortunately, very much like a newb.

Okay, staring at the ceiling will lead to less bodily harm. On the other hand, Tony will actually start to pull his hair out if he can't get that open. When Tony's locked in a room with only four little lines seemingly ingrained into a difficult to reach spot, he gets anxious.

It's because of this challenge and the fact that the doors here are really quiet that Tony doesn't notice Steve until he's right behind him. That's saying something too, because Captain America is huge, absolutely huge.

"Good morning, Anthony." Steve says.

"Tony." He corrects for the second time today.

Captain America smiles a little too much for Tony's tastes. He's either trying way too hard to be happy for Tony's sake or he's actually happy for some reason. Or he's a morning person. Tony doesn't like any of these options.

"Hello, Agent America. What brings you to my little corner of white washed, wait, it is just a white washed corner." Tony says. He puts on more of smirk than a smile in return.

"Steve's fine." Steve tells him.

"Do you prefer Captain?" Tony asks.

Maybe he should be more struck by the fact he's in a room with Captain America, but somehow the self defense of sarcasm powers through even that.

Steve laughs.

"Yeah, I suppose. Anyway, you might want to get comfortable because I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist on behalf of The Director, himself, that after the limo incident you stay here for the unforeseeable future." Steve tells him.

Incident might be a little bit of an under exaggeration.

"The unforeseeable future? You can't just keep me here." Tony argues. If he doesn't get his rent in soon, then his stupid landlord will definitely start going through his stuff again. The last time that happened, Tony's microwave had mysteriously gone missing.

Tony still needs to get together about a microwave amount of money for this month.

"Son, those people after you are very dangerous and they think you have something very important." Steve tells him.

"Okay, don't call me son and I don't need anyone's protection..." Tony lets it trail off.

"You don't know these people, Tony." Steve not so subtly warns.

"And I do know you?" Tony asks.

Steve sighs.

"I see your point but we still have to consider that maybe you do have the information we need." Steve tries to convince the teen.

"The password? Why is everyone freaking out about that computer?" Tony asks. It's just a computer. An awesome computer but a computer. He wishes he never saw that beautiful, terrible laptop.

"I swear that you'll find out soon enough but only if you cooperate with us." Steve tells him.

Tony's found a new reason to want to tear his hair out.

"By coorperate, do you mean stay locked in this box forever?" Tony asks.

"I know you've had to stay in here for awhile. We've just had to figure out a view things but I'm actually here right now to escort you to the cafeteria. I'm sure you must be hungry." Steve says, attempting to change the subject.

Unfortunately, Steve must have been taught somewhat well, because the idea of food does a decent job of getting Tony off the subject of the laptop. For now.

Steve notices the kid's peaked interest because he motions Tony out into the hallway.

"This isn't over." Tony says before following him out.

"I would expect nothing less." Steve answers.

The hallway, to Tony's chagrin, is pretty much a long version of his room.

"You guys don't really have much of a decorating budget do you." Tony states, more than asks.

He follows closely behind Steve but it's not because he's hesitant or anything to get out of his literal box. "And since we're on the topic. Who are you guys?"

"Ever hear of HYDRA?" Steve asks.

Tony has a very secret freak out inside of himself, because, yes. In his many computer exploits, he's learned to stay far away from that can of worms unless he wants to end up on a milk carton. Well, if there was someone to report it, he would end up on a milk carton. This is Captain America, though. He can't be a part of that.

"No." Tony answers slowly.

"They are the not-nice group of people that gave you the free limo ride. Why you haven't heard of them yet, and a whole lot of other people never will? That, that's because of us." Steve tells him. There's definitely some prideful chest puffing.

Oh, so they must be…

"We're SHIELD."

Tony got that. He was way less wary of hacking SHIELD every now and then.

"SHIELD? I've never heard of SHIELD before." Tony says.

In his defense, he thought it sounded more convincing then it probably did.

Steve gives him a glance.

He probably doesn't have a very good defense.

That's not the only the only strange glance Tony gets on the way to where the food is. Some kid following Captain America around the halls like a lost puppy must be at least a little unusual, because people seem to be giving them quick once-overs that might just be the various SHIELD people totally sizing them up.

"Are we on a boat or something?" Tony asks Steve. Either Tony was going crazy or there was some thrumming noise in the air. An engine, possibly?

"Something like that, but, as you kids say, a lot cooler." He answers.

Tony's question is somewhat answered as they walk into the cafeteria. The far side wall is completely covered in windows showing an amazing view of..the sky.

They're in the sky. That complicates things.

Tony's distracted from figuring out exactly the logistics of a giant flying SHIELD base based on his estimated measurements from what he's seen so far and what he knows about advanced revolving engines by the tons of agents swarming around the cafeteria.

Steve walks ahead some while Tony gapes at the entire scene. It doesn't take long for him to notice the growing distance between him and his guide.

Someone does notice, though, and before Tony can pick up his pace because let's face it Steve walks really quickly he's stopped by a very hot for being in her forties something woman in a black pants suit instead of the usual black uniform.

"Hello, you must be Anthony." The woman greets. "I'm Doctor Olivia Stane." Tony might actually like the name Anthony if everyone said it like she said it.

"Um, hi, hey. What's up." Tony attempts to say cooly. He can see Steve talking to someone over the the woman's shoulder past her shiny ponytail.

"Well, Tony, I'm the leading consultational researcher for the ongoing investigation of The Stark laptop. I was hoping I could talk to you for a moment?" Dr. Drake asks.

Even with somewhat raging hormones, Tony still picks up that A. She's a consultant and B. She called it the Stark laptop. That's what the fuss was about. It was made by the one and only Howard Stark. Man, he died like forever ago.

"Sure..." Tony agrees.

"Great." She says, and smiles at him.

"Why don't we go somewhere with-" Doctor Stane is interrupted by the ever sneaky Captain America.

"Miss Stane, what are you doing here?" Steve asks her. His tone was still pleasant but at the same time Tony felt like he could hear kind of an edge to it.

"Mr. Rogers, as you know, I have many of my own resources put into finding The Stark laptop and have been courteous enough to share them with your SHIELD team. It seems well within my rights that I have a chance to question the boy." She says. Now that's how someone says something cooly.

"I'm curious to know how you learned about him." Steve's tells her. Ignoring her request to talk to Tony.

Tony really doesn't want to be a part of this conversation.

"Let's just call it a part of my resources." She answers. "And I don't see why it's a problem because Anthony seems perfectly fine with talking with me."

Does anyone see a limo around here because Tony would totally love to be in a limo right now?

"Seeing how Tony is in the custody of SHIELD, I will have to work something out."

"I'm sure you will." Doctor Stane says.

With another look toward Tony, she turns around on her heels and walks out of the cafeteria.

"She seems cool." Tony says out loud. He just needs to verify what the universe already totally knows.

"When it comes to Olivia, looks can be deceiving." Steve tells him. "Sorry about getting caught up in a conversation up there? Maria can be very assertive when she wants something. Anyway, ready to try the best food you can get a mile above sea level."

"Um, sure." Tony answers.

Tony follows behind Steve, keeping one eye on the door Doctor Stane had just gone through.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey there, everyone. Hope you're having a fantastic day. I'm going to visit some family next week so I'm going to try very hard to get the next chapter up by this Monday. Wish me fast typing.**

 **By the way, I do not own marvel and I never will own Marvel.**

Tony picks up another cucumber with his fork and examines it with a critical eye. "The food here is disgustingly fresh and healthy." He complains to no one in particular in the lab.

Tony had scarfed down the ham sandwich that came with it, but was taking his sweet time with the salad.

Steve had him come directly to the lab after picking out food from the garden bar of a cafeteria. Something tells Tony it has a lot to do Captain America not wanting anyone else to ask about the laptop. Or that woman coming back.

Speaking of the laptop, he had a new mystery to add along with the secret compartment. Tony had, of course, an idea of what they were probably talking about. Once you add Howard Stark in with some kind of tech you should really realize that it's gonna be pretty darn important. What Tony might personally know about it was beyond him.

"SHIELD doesn't exactly spare many expenses. That's about the highest quality food you can get around these parts." Bruce Banner says, long after when the answer zone should have expired. From the way he's staring at that file in his hand, he may have just processed what Tony said.

"These parts? Where are we? Canada?" Tony jokes. Somewhere inside of him he realizes that they might well be floating above Canada. Or India. Or the North Pole.

"Practically the middle of the Pacific Ocean." Steve answers.

"Well, we're actually situated slightly closer to...you know what the middle is accurate enough, I suppose." Bruce stops himself from correcting Steve. Kind of.

"That was my next guess." Tony says then rethinks it for a moment. "Actually, my next guess was Narnia, but right after that I would have said Pacific Ocean."

"Haha," Steve exaggeratedly laughed. "Because Narnia is a place in a book."

"Look at you." A voice that turns out to be Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye's, calls out as he enters through the side door. "You didn't fall for it a second time."

Steve looks like he is going to respond to Clint but changes his mind after a glance to Tony.

Hawkeye drops a half full quiver onto the table. "I'm running low again." He tells Bruce. "These ones might have become broken in a series of freak accidents involving a toaster. It was lightning boy's fault."

He notices Tony sitting on a table.

"Hey, the kid's here."

"I would prefer not to be constantly referred to as that." Tony tells him, setting aside what's left of his food. "I do, despite common belief, have a name."

"Hmm, I think I'm gonna stick with the kid. It suits you." Clint decides as Tony frowns.

"And my name doesn't?" Tony asks.

"Tony, don't worry." Captain America started. "Hawkeye will refer to you however you like."

"Yes, because Ole' Cap'n here is a pretty good dictator for being so against the Nazis." Clint digs.

Tony suddenly goes into a coughing fit that he tried his best to keep in the quiet side. Yeah, basically it disrupted everything and everyone in the lab. It isn't his fault, though. Hawkeye just totally slammed Captain America with a communism joke. That's choke worthy.

Tony could literally melt right now into a puddle and then drip into one of the many industrial drains.

"I'm good." Tony somewhat hoarsely says.

"Don't die, kid." Hawkeye starts. "I just started to like you. Anyway, I'm a busy man but I'll make sure to break you out for something that is not lame sometime."

"Check in with Coulson first," Steve stiffly reminds him as Clint walks out the door just as suddenly as he had entered. The room was just silent enough to be awkward for a few moments.

"So, Tony," Bruce started, breaking the silence. "I'd like to go over a few details."

Tony finally realizes what's in the file. It's about him.

"Then it's good timing that my meeting finally ended. Thank you for bringing the kid here for me, Captain." A new voice says as he enters. Coulson looks over to Steve leaning against a wall. "I'm guessing you're why Clint is giving everyone the stinkeye."

"It's nothing I can't handle." Steve answers.

"Good. Anyway, Bruce, go on." Coulson tells them. Tony can't tell who's the big boss in this.

"Okay," Bruce says, flipping through the file in his hand once more. "First things first, I'd like to do a quick physical."

"No."

"Oh, well, it's really just a formality. There's nothing-"

"No."

Tony definitely doesn't do doctors even if Bruce Banner is way more than just a regular doctor but still. He has principles. Hasn't been to a doctor in forever and doesn't plan to go anytime soon.

"I need to make sure these details are up to date and…" Bruce seems to not be able to completely come up with the end of his sentence.

"Accurate." Coulson helps.

While Tony should probably be feeling a normal feeling to this like nervousness or even dread but really he couldn't help but to feel something close to happiness. Well, it's his version of happiness. Okay, it's just smugness.

"Really? What have you found that's wrong with it?" Tony asks. He already knows the answer.

"We haven't actually found anything but pretty clear that something's wrong." Bruce says and hold out the folder to Tony.

Tony glances through it himself, memorizing the highlights and pretty much everything else. It's how he expected it to be. All the way down to the copy of his birth certificate.

"Everything seems pretty up to code to me."

"Here's the thing." Coulson starts.

"Your records seem to be perfectly fine-"

"Is this why I'm here? To talk about how perfectly fine my files are? Are you even going to discuss the, I don't know, laptop that almost got me killed?" Tony asks.

"I understand that you might be worried about that but we really need to sort out a few things first." Bruce tells him. Yeah, to make sure Tony's not some kind of spy or something, he bets. Tony practically laughs when trying to imagine himself as a spy.

Bruce takes Tony's silence as permission to continue. "Our technicians have discovered that your file has been accessed and most likely changed." Bruce ny smiles to himself. They must be pretty good to at least figure that out, but really, all they have is that it was accessed? Come on. At least put up some kind of challenge.

"It's pretty clear that your age was tampered with by moving up your admittance into the foster system." He finishes.

Oh.

Of course, they would come to that conclusion.

"Why is that?" Tony asks. He can see the adults getting uncomfortable. Except for Coulson but he's probably some super agent jerkface, anyway.

"Well, it is a pretty obvious conclusion. We've dug up some more information about your admission and it all says that...you were found in front of a church at age two. That's a very odd age-"

"To be abandoned." Tony interrupts. Something dark curls up in his stomach.

"Wait, Tony." Steve suddenly starts from where he had been silently listening. "That's not at all what we mean."

Like Captain America would somehow know anything about it. He's just like everyone else.

"Yeah, because it doesn't make sense. Right? What kind of kid can be so awful that a parent could only take two years of him before dumping him off in front of some random church in new York? The safest place ever, right?" Tony says, close to shouting. Who would do that? echoes through his mind. He's as close to a genius as it gets, but he can't even answer the only question that matters to him.

The three men didn't seem to know what to say.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Tony tells the group of so-called super whatevers. "Let's just finish this conversation, now. My age doesn't really matter. Nothing in my file can help you with whatever you want with me. I just want to get this whole thing over with so I can go back...to my apartment. Actually, right now I'd rather just go back to my little white box."

Coulson is the first one to recover.

"That seems like it might be a good idea." The agent says.

Tony slides off the table, knocking his food tray and his file onto the ground. He knows it might look childish but he keeps his arm out out and ends up knocking the few empty glass containers left on the table onto the ground when he walked over to the door nearest to Coulson. It was worth it.

He gets a couple of feet out the door when a hand lands on his shoulder.

"So-, I mean Tony," Captain America says. "We owe you an apology. No one deserved that."

Agent Coulson was right behind him.

"Captain, this might not be a good idea for the moment." He tries to tell Steve.

The rest of their confrontation was put to rest, though.

Not a moment after Coulson spoke, a very metal sliding door, just a little way down the hallway, exploded open with flames spewing every which way.

Tony barely heard the boom before he was thrown back into a not-so-soft wall.


	6. Chapter 6

**I know, trust me I know, it's long past due for my next update but…Okay, all I can say is I slacked off because of some extenuating circumstances. It won't be happening again. I do have the small gift of some offscreen (page) guest stars, though, as a peace offering.**

 **I don't own The Avengers. I am not making any money off of any of this. Please, don't sue me.**

Tony barely hears the boom before he is thrown back into a not so soft wall.

"Umpfff." He lets out. Another second later, the shock wears off and he's left with a sharp bruising ache.

Walls really should be made softer. Its funny that Tony hadn't realized till now that there isn't even a point of having walls be so hard.

What's left of the recently exploded doors slams to the ground with a boom.

Bigger problems, Tony. Bigger freaking problems, Tony, than stupid walls and aching sides.

Captain America is already up to Tony's not so surprise but it does catch him when Steve almost immediately bolts toward him.

"Tony?" Steve asks, his voice is stern and the super soldier is obviously in superhero mode. "Are you okay, so- kid?"

Tony considers the question as Steve towers over him.

"Am I, am I okay?" He starts. "I don't know. Are the walls supposed to explode in giant fireballs or is," Tony jerks and is interrupted by another similar explosion.

"Would someone like to tell me what are THEY'RE doing here?" Coulson demands.

"Dr. Richards," Bruce grunts. "Was asked to advise on an extraterrestrial device found in the-"

"I was aware, but how did that lead to them down five floors." Coulson interupts. The exasperation is clear in his voice.

Steve grimaced and shrugs a response about teleportation while checking over the teen.

"Just sit tight, Tony. Coulson, can you?" Steve let's the question trail off and after a nod from Coulson sprints toward the lab door.

Toyns left just as dazed as before.

"What? Why is there... How..." This sentence was becoming very familiar to him. He doesn't even have his shield." Tony finally ends on. He's suddenly thrown for a rather mentally challenging realization that he is actually in this situation. He should have realized this from the moment he had been flagged down by that limo or even when he was but in an interrogation room and actually interrogated but it's just now hitting him.

Tony pushes himself up with a groan only to realize that he wasn't the only one having difficulties.

Over in a corner that had been just outside his reach is Bruce. On the ground. Gripping his head. Looking on the angry side.

Tony"s eyesight is suddenly good enough to notice shine on the man's forehead.

Tony takes Dr. Banner's predicament as a new burst of energy and scrambled to get up. Of course, once he's up he has no idea what to do so he just ends up smashed against the wall. At least this time it's by choice. Kind of.

There's an uncomfortable amount of suspicious banging from somewhere behind that exploding door. There's an almost Hulk to his left. Tony doesn't even want to know what might be down the other end of the hall. Okay, he's gonna have to risk it.

Tony's stopped from going down another rabbit hole by the sudden reappearance of Coulson. This time he's wielding a big looking needle filled with a clear liquid. Tony forces himself to look away as Coulson plunges the needle into Bruce's shaking arm.

So Captain America was talking about that when he left. Tony doesn't want to admit that that kind of, almost makes him feel something very similar to disappointment.

Bruce shudders and lets out a breath.

"Better?" Coulson asks him.

Bruce coughs and shakes his head for a moment.

"Much." Bruce finally says, trying to pick himself up but ending up sliding back down the wall. "I suppose."

There's a crash from somewhere much closer to them than before and a following crash as Tony jumps out of his socks, figuratively, over to the adults who actually know how to not get dead quick.

Tony would feel even more embarrassed, if possible, but Dr. Banner must have felt some sort of distress against it to because he finally seems to have the strength to get up using the wall and heads back the few feet into the lab, refusing Coulson reaching out his arm to help.

Coulson sighs and really looks over to the hole for like the fifth time.

"Well, then. On to the next problem. Again." Coulson mutters to himself and looks around to Tony. "I suppose that would be you."

Tony looks sheepishly away from him. He was definitely the newb in this situation.

"There was, and then, well." Tony's not coming up with what he should say or anything at all that makes up a sentence. "Explosions. Fire everywhere. We're all going to die. And we're in the sky. Oh, we're definitely going to die."

"No one's going to die." Coulson tells the teen, obviously having been through these kinds of situations a thousand times. "Please, head back into the lab and let the agents handle this."

Maybe Tony should have been put at ease about Coulson seeming so at ease, but instead he just feels even more out of place. What kind of crazy, whacked-up place has he been dragged to?

"What are they handling? Bombs?" Tony's voice might be going up a notch. "Missiles?" Tony asks the agent. He would be lying if there really was some sort of hysterics edging into his voice now.. He was imagining a nuclear bomb type thing exploding and then the smaller nuclear bomb next to it exploding then the really huge nuclear bomb next to those two nuclear bombs about to go off and so on and whatnot.

"No. We keep our more sophisticated weaponry on lower levels." Coulson tells him. "Will you please come into the lab."

Tony realizes that he's still clutching onto the wall, hugging his aching left side.

"That doesn't encourage me about any of our personal safeties." Tony yells over more racket coming from somewhere. Maybe everywhere by now.

"Listen, kid. Let me level with you." Coulson tries. "I currently have no knowledge of what exactly is going on beyond some scientific mumbo jumbo about pyramids or whatever, but I do know that there are at least four very capable people who will do anything to protect anyone who needs help. Add in Captain America, possibly Hawkeye and Widow and a fair amount of agents and you can be sure that nothing will happen to you here."

Tony gapes at him.

No one's ever said anything like that to him before and meant it. It's strange.

He almost...Tony doesn't even know what he almost and he guesses it doesn't really matter anyway. He doesn't want to be some quivering kid, reduced to hyperventilating in a corner.

"That's so much worse than what I imagined. Why would you bring me here?"

He'll at least remain outspoken if nothing else.

"This is an anomaly." Coulson flatly answers. "So it would really be in your best interest to come into the lab."

Tony glances down from Coulson's stare and takes a step toward the door before fully committing and hastily does his best to not sprint to the lab door.

He makes it into the lab, noting Bruce insert yet another needle into his arm. Tony's not so sure that what Dr. Banner needs is to get even more loony.

Coulson's is the last and final person in the room and slides the door open with a bang. Right before the door shut, Tony glimpses a figure in SHIELD getup being thrown across the room very much like he had been only moments before. Unfortunately for him he was thrown way out from that hole in the wall so...sucks to be him. Bad luck comes in all kinds of forms.

"See. It's being handled." Coulson's tells Tony. He wipes off his brow.

"I'm not that much of an expert for these matters but that does not seem handled." Tony says, wanting nothing more than for anyone to act like a human being. Anyone.

Bruce notices Tony's way to open eyes staring at him. He looks down at the really over prepared medical kit by his hands.

"Don't use drugs, Tony." He tells him.

This was not what Tony meant.

"You're back up and running, I assume." Coulson kind of asks Bruce, looking around like he was searching for something to do.

"More or less. I think I have the measurements down to a science." The scientist replies.

"Good. We'll have a lot more room in the budget without constant Hulk repair."

Coulson presses his lips together as he hears what sounds like a familiar obnoxious taunt from much too close for his comfort accompanied the boom of rock hitting metal.

"Except that there are plenty of other people who would love to make up for that."

"I'm almost worried that they might need The Hulk out there." Bruce comments as he rubs the inside of his elbow that had just been punctured twice.

"I truly doubt there would ever be a situation in the helicarrier that needs a Hulk." Coulson says but there's a hint of something in his voice.

"He might not feel the same."

It takes Tony a second to realize that the last comment wasn't directed toward him but was actually just Bruce referring to The Hulk as someone separate from him. He thinks.

Tongs really starting to wonder how long these whole battle things last. Or how long it had lasted so far. An hour. A minute. Thirty seconds.

He could tell that at least Dr. Banner seemed relatively un at ease. Even more than from just almost going green or whatever.

"Um." Tony starts, getting the attention of the two men. "What's even out there?"

Bruce and Coulson share a glance at each other.

His answer comes from someone Tony wasn't expecting.

"Individuals with uniquely inhuman powers." One Doctor Olivia Stane answers Tony.

He ended up jumping almost as much as he had from the explosions. Tony notes that there had been a slight lull in that.

Dr. Stane stood with the same air of confidence a always from her side part to her somehow brilliantly black high heels.

Wait. What did she just say?

While Tony was very tempted to ask why everyone in this establishment was so good at sneaking up on people, he figured some other things should take president.

"What kind of people did you, did you just say?" Tony asks. He shifts from foot to foot.

Stane ignores him and instead chooses to address the other adults in the room.

"What could possibly drive you to keep the boy down here during this?" She demands, tapping her heel on the ground like the second she's had to wait had been a second too long.

"Well," Bruce starts but is, rather expectedly, stopped.

"From an agent, if your be so kind."

"Seriously." Tony tries to get out a casual laugh. "What kind of people?"

"This is the most secure room on this floor." Coulson answers and decides to add something more. "As you already know."

Dr. Stane stops her examination of the room and most importantly the people inside of it as he finished. Her lips seemed to press even closer together.

"The most secure never seems to stop them anymore, though. Does it?"

"You'd be surprised."

Olivia sighs.

"Don't worry so much about SHIELD's pet delinquents. Oh wait, you prefer the term superheroes." She says. "You'll have to excuse me. I'm still not used to having to work...with them on this project."

Bruce as well as Coulson have to chose to ignore that comment. They seem to have learned at least a little how to handle the woman.

"We're here for no other reason than the boy's safety. Do I need to repeat myself on this room being,"

"Phil." She starts. "You're acting like just another trainee who would do anything to get in the action. To be like their heroes. Now, I think we can both agree that the boy is much too important to risk for something as silly as still wanting" She lets the words hang for a moment. "Recognition."

Needless to say that is exactly how Tony remembers himself ending up in a state of the art elevator with Olivia Stane. Alone with Olivia Stane.

Hawkeye pinched the curve of his nose in frustration, looking over at Coulson and Bruce. They were standing in the once again under control hallway.

"One kid. There was one kid. How did you guys really messed that up?"

 **I will definitely, as in even if it kills me, be updating soon. Enjoy and feel free to review.**


	7. Chapter 7

_**My timing sucks in many way, but I do have the next chapter for you guys and wow. Can I just say thank you to everyone who has continued to follow and favorite this story? You guys rock.**_ _ **I have learned to make no promises for the future except that the next chapter is happening. Hopefully, we're all still alive by then. Just kidding.**_ _ **The last month was...interesting for me.**_ _ **I suppose that is the best kind, though.**_

 _ **Another reminder that nowhere in this story do I own any marvel characters or settings or whatnot**_

"One kid. There was one kid. how did you mess that up so much?" Hawkeye points out to his fellow teammates sitting around the table.

"We got everyone back in their containment units." Steve says. His shield sits behind him, leaning on his chair even though he's still in his civilian clothes. The latest threat may have increased his usual paranoia for the moment.

"Would someone like to remind me where our MAIN priority is?" Clint asks. "The kid." He looks around at the stony faces. "I quote main directly from Fury himself."

"You know that there's no one here who wants that computer more than me. I owe it to Howard to-"

"We know." Coulson says, cutting Steve off. "But Agent Barton has a point being that Tony Jones is our priority and we have to protect him."

"What if the teleportation incident had been planned and you were supposed to be drawn away by the chaos?" Natasha asks from her seat. Her hands were folded cooly on the table in front of her.

"That would have been highly improbable." Bruce mumbles from his high horse of not being able to have had many options in that situation.

"They needed help in there. An entire wing was compromised." Steve tries to tell them.

Coulson has to stop Clint from saying something that Coulson would probably end up regretting.

"As I've been reminded by our sole consultant of Project Stark, I don't think any of us are on higher ground for not being able to resist running into a fight."

Bruce shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

"Stane." Clint says. He looked like he had tasted something bitter. "Can't keep any private insecurities to yourself when that woman's around."

"I can actually agree completely with you on that." Steve says.

Clint nods his head to the Captain.

"So we're at least all in agreement that we have to go to level S-5." Coulson asks.

A series of groans echoed across the room.

"Don't be such children." Widow huffed.

"You're being very quiet, Anthony." Olivia Stane's words echoed through the small elevator.

"Um," Tony tries. Awfully observant around here, aren't they. "Yeah. I guess so. It might be all the excitement" (terror) "and whatnot."

Olivia laughs to herself.

"Yes. I suppose you could call it that."

The elevator comes to a halt and Tony shifts his weight to his other foot. A familiar ache is becoming very familiar again with the rush of adrenaline wearing off.

Olivia steps forward to a panel and presses a clear card onto it. Tony could see the glint of an eagle or some kind of bird in thin, white print.

The door finally whooshes open with a ding. Tony's surprised by the ding. Even whatever the holy whatever this place is has something as trivial as a notification bell.

Oh man, notification bells. What Tony would give for his own laptop.

"This is my private section of one of SHIELD's multiple research levels." Olivia tells Tony, sweeping her arm around the wide, open room in front of him.

"Woah." Tony says, admiring the sparkling glass that separated each equally sparkling station. "How'd you manage this?"

"You'd be surprised at what substantial donations and a little power in the kind of industries SHIELD dapples in can get you." Olivia says, her air of complete obscurity didn't seem to be giving up. Although, it's pretty easy to imagine what industries this place might need. The ones the the big guns. Big guns...Stane...Oh.

Oh.

"You're that woman who runs Stark Enterprises."

The super awesome company that Tony definitely can't afford anything from.

Olivia Stane was rarely on the junk TV Tony liked to zone out to while typing. From what he did hear, Stane always seemed to be busy doing some new weapons deal somewhere or another. Now, Tony knew it was in a big war blimp, so that's interesting.

"Run might be a slight understatement." She tells him.

Tony chooses not to answer to that. Fine, he doesn't know exactly how to answer to that but there are shiny screens that seem fun on every work table so whatever.

He brushes off a lone grain of dust on the screen. The beautiful screen.

"Anthony?" A slightly strained voice brings him back.

"Um...Huh?" Tony answers. She was probably saying something important about this or that.

"Please, Anthony, pay attention. This is very important for your safety and the safety of my entire mission."

"The Laptop?"

"The laptop." She breaths, her eyes suddenly staring off to the distance. It's actually a pretty nice change from her usual stare down. She blinks. "Yes, the laptop."

"OkieDokey, then. Well, I don't know about you, but I know nada about laptops of any kind." More or less.

"Anthony," She starts again. "I know this may be difficult for you, right now, but I need your help."

"You need someone's help. Someone who knows what the heck you're talking about." Tony says, starting to pick at the hem of his jacket out of habit.

"Don't." She snaps. "Don't tear at the hem of your coat."

"How about this loose strong on my hoodie?" Tony asks. "Can I pick at the loose strong on my hoodie?"

He finally pulls out the thread with a slight snap. Oh, old habits. Sadly, there's nothing fun for him to pull out of his sleeve this time.

Stane's eyebrow snaps with it. She seems to decide to ignore Tony's last bit of sass.

Interesting.

"I'm going to show you something, now, and you need to tell me anything you might know about it." She tells him. Her knuckles are white as she places one of her palms on a nearby work table. The table glows white for a moment before Olivia starts to brush through different menus to find what she is after.

As a woman on a mission, it doesn't take her long. It reminds Tony of, deep pang in his soul, his own stuff. Man, if he ever gets out of this place, he's gonna need to do some deep renovating of his "identity." Oh, well. Jones was a drought in creativity on Tony's part. Its not like he had anything to build on from Tony Unknown.

Stane finds what she's looking for and takes a step back from the desk. That's probably the nicest invitation Tony's gonna get.

Tony recognises it immediately.

On the screen was an obviously old from its grainy depiction photo. Or the close up of some photo. It's a little more than half of the laptop from the limo and the fingertips of some random dude.

"Do you recognize it?" Olivia asks.

Tony swallows at the memory. He doesn't particularly want to open this can of worms.

"I guess so." He settles for.

"You guess so?"

"A laptop like that was in crazy dudes limo," He starts, curious to see himself where he's gonna go with this. "but I didn't have time to develop a personal relationship with it or anything."

Smooth, Tony. Smooth.

"I did not mean if you recognized it from Dr. Albretch." She curls her lips at the creeps name.

At least Jones didn't have anything on the name _Albretch_. It's like barfing. Tony's barfing in his own mouth everytime he even thinks it.

Wait. Not from the limo.

What?

Again?

"I've never seen that laptop before and I especially don't know the password. I barely remember the passwords to my own stuff which just so you know is like one-two-three-four-six. I skip the five to confuse people." Tony says, silently wanting to pat himself on the shoulder.

One-two-three-four-six isn't a half bad idea.

"Think, Anthony." She tells him. Tony wonders if this is her friendly voice. "It's very distinctive isn't it?"

"It's kinda just a black box." Tony says, remembering the words of that other crazy in a different type of way dude. Hawkeye. The Avenger with the arrows. What's even up with that?

The screen clicks to black as Dr. Stane sighs.

"Would you like to know why this laptop is so important, Anthony?" She asks him.

"It's Stark."

"That's very true, but it's not the laptop itself that is attracting us." Olivia tells him.

It should be. That laptop's awesome.

"We need what's inside of it."

"Nuclear bomb codes?" Tony guesses. It happened in Mission Impossible and that movie's definitely an accurate portrayal of the real world.

"Oh, nothing so juvenile."

Okay. They're nuclear bomb codes, but whatever. Call them juvenile if that's what she wants to do.

"The thing is I can't tell you anything until you tell me something." She says. "It's a trade off."

"Um, why." This information might be prominent to him.

Stane blinks.

"Why? Because I'm afraid that's how it has to work."

"No. Why does it even matter?" Tony asks. "Stark's dead and it's just one laptop."

It really is just one laptop and Tony's just one kid, but there are like a thousand people or something going especially out of their way to ruin tony's day. It just doesn't add up.

"Howard Stark was still able to communicate something to us before he passed. His method of communication was unusual, but the message came across either way. This is very important and at the moment we haven't even seen the laptop again since it's disappearance." She answers, her eyes blank like she had repeated this a thousand times to herself.

"That sucks."

"Yes, it does...suck."

"Well, maybe you're wrong and it's just a couple Solitaire games." Tony suggests, wanting to please be escorted to his white cubby at this point.

"It's not." She answers quickly.

"Um, I think I'm going to have to ask why again." Tony tells her.

Silence hangs around them for a moment.

"I'm sure you will learn everything in due time, Anthony," She says. "Depending on yourself. You'll just have to settle for now, knowing that I have very good reasons doing what I do."

It's not anticlimactic at all for Tony.

"Okay, but just so you know, I'm probably not going to have anything new to tell you ever since I don't know anything about anything that you're talking about."

She turns away from him and slowly takes a couple of steps to the center of the room.

"That is very disappointing." She says, still keeping her back turned.

She does turn around, though, with a disturbing look on her face. She's almost smiling. And it's almost pleasant. That's not even sarcastic.

"I suppose we have plenty of time to figure this all out."

And Tony supposes that he's going to grab the next parachute he sees and jump out the window. Or bungee cord. At this point, he's not feeling to picky.

"Plenty of time seems like a lot of time." Tony says.

There's a ding from across the room.

"It's only as long as you make it." Stane says, ignoring the sound. "As soon as we find out what it is that you might not quite recall at this time, you are free to go."

"That's not even remotely true, Olivia." A familiar black-suited agent announces as he enters the room with some oh so familiar faces behind him.

 ** _Review if you like telling people your opinion._**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello. First off, I've done some major fall cleaning for this story. Most of it's just my past grammar mistakes, but a couple of things are sweeping together my loose story ends to make sure everything is on track to continue into the plot. Feel free to look back at that. This chapter unleashes a few more mysteries, I** **hope. I'm trying not to be too obvious about anything that shouldn't be too obvious. Enjoy.**

The elevator was in frequent use, today.

"You know what would be really interesting?" Hawkeye asks the other occupants in the elevator. "If this kid doesn't know a thing about what we're looking for."

"I wouldn't call that interesting." Steve answers.

"Or realistic. I haven't come across many coincidences in our work." Widow also says, keeping her eyes peeled on the blinking numbers of the floors going by.

"There aren't any coincidences with this case." Steve tells them.

Clint scoops his eyebrows toward him.

"No coincidences?"

Bruce speaks up from his spot in the corner.

"Well, there are more than 1,162,299 Anthonys in the United States alone." He shrugs his shoulders when everyone but Natasha looks his way. "I researched it."

"I'm surprised this conversation hasn't already come up." Natasha tells the men.

"There is no conversation." Steve argues to them. His expression somewhat pained.

The elevators come to a halt and opens to a new recruit. He takes at them for a moment and uses his new training for the first time to decide that maybe this situation isn't quite at his current level.

"I'll just grab the next one." He says, feeling the need to salute them or something as Captain America nods to him before the door slides shut.

"Someone's a little emotionally compromised." Hawkeye mumbled over to Bruce who just reached to adjust his glasses.

"Compromised?" Steve huffs. "I might be the only one who is actually giving this situation the attention it darn needs."

"I assure you there are multiple divisions with-"

"Gee Wizs, Captain." Clint interrupts Coulson. "I'm jolly sure taking this seriously." Clint jokes.

Steve knows better than to continue with this.

"The elevators slower than usual today." Natasha points out to them.

"We're only three floors behind and the lag can be written off as an after effect from the teleportation incident." Clint says. He too had noticed it, though. He was one of the best agents of SHIELD after all.

"No, that should be under control." Coulson says.

The elevator stops suddenly and the door dings.

"Geez, why is this shaft so popular today." Clint complains. He is promptly stopped by the doors revealing who had summoned the elevator.

"Director, sir." Hawkeye says in agent mode now.

The Fury himself stood in front of them, arms crossed behind his back, making no move to step into the box. The doors did not make a move to close either.

"I've been informed of the breakthrough in The Stark Project." He tells the waiting Avengers.

"I completed my briefing just a few hours ago, sir." Steve begins after a beat of silence. "There have been enough reports from our insiders in Hydra to at least confirm that Anthony Jones was the correct target of Dr. Albrecht that night."

"So I've been told."

"We still only have basic foster, school, and living records on Anthony." Steve begins. "They aren't telling us much and, well, what there is doesn't seem to have much credibility."

Fury raises his eyebrow.

"You think the information was tampered with?"

Steve flounders for a moment.

"Well, sir. Not quite. I've just learned to trust my instincts when it comes to something not smelling right..." Steve trails off.

"Good instincts."

Fury moves his arms in front of him, revealing a file in his right hand.

"This might help clear the air." Fury says, holding the file out to them.

After a beat, Clint is the one to take it from his hand.

"Did our scans of the limo get anything from the laptop, password locked or not?" Coulson asks.

"No, it's as we expected." Fury tells them. "The laptop is too internally defended to get anything from an outside scan. Assuming the boy even knows or ever knew of it's passcode, we'll actually need to actually have it in our hands to access anything."

"That's a big assumption." Widow speaks up.

Clint flips the file he had been looking through closed.

"Is this file correct?" Hawkeye asks the director. Only Widow could pick up the slight hitch in his voice.

"Yes." Fury doesn't blink.

"So, the kid is sixteen. Figures."

"Sixteen and not to be underestimated. It's easy to wipe out information, but tricky to actually change it. Too many places to skip over." Fury says.

"Where'd he skip for you to get this?" Coulson asks, pointing to the file.

Fury smirks.

"Just an old archives Anthony doesn't even know he was a part of." Fury says. His pocket vibrates. "Speaking of technology."

Fury lets the phone ring, though, and continues to stare at them.

"How is our resident consultant?" The Director asks them finally.

"Dr. Stane is as usual. Her department hasn't had any recent discoveries, of course." Phil answers. He stresses the of course.

"She's not going anywhere anytime soon." Fury says, enjoying the slight downcast of their faces. "Olivia has personal knowledge of project Beta," Clint coughs, but Fury continues. "Not to mention is practically funding _this_ project's entire operation. It's hard enough to have to sidetrack you from current business whenever a decade old lead comes to the light."

"We're referring to it as Project Beta again, sir?" Hawkeye speaks his question after Fury finishes. The entire group has their eyebrows raised.

"The name was retired for concern over a mole, but this might all be coming to a close soon enough. The attention from throwing around the code name might actually help us in this situation."

"In what way are you hoping for that to happen?" Hawkeye asks.

"Oh, you never know what you find when you kick up old dust." The Director says says the doors slide closed.

Coulson exchanges a glance with Hawkeye who had already exchanged a glance with Widow.

"So, beta's back in. That's weird." Clint says.

The elevator starts moving again.

"No kidding." Coulson answers.

 **So, what is in Project Beta? Why is there so much tension with just the name Project Beta? You wish you knew.**

 **Take a guess in the comments, though, because guessing is fun.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm back. It took me a while but I did update as promised. My muses for this story abandoned me in all of the worst kind of ways but I got them back and I finally have a solid path for where I'm going. Well, as much of a solid path as I've had for any story. Please, enjoy and don't get too angry at me.**

 **I do not own any of the characters, settings, etc. Marvel gets the rights to all of these beautiful things. I do this for the enjoyment of other not profit.**

"It's only as long as you make it." Stane says, ignoring the sound. "As soon as we acquire what we need to acquire, you are free to go."  
Tony perks up at the idea of leaving. They don't seem like the most competent bunch but someone at some point must find this laptop.

"That's not even remotely true, Olivia." A familiar black-suited agent announces as he enters the room with some oh so familiar faces behind him.

They have some serious swagger this time.

Whatever emotions Stane had revealed before were quickly covered over as the woman regained her pristine image.

"I don't believe we can rule out any possibilities at this point." She argues.

Coulson scoffs and shakes his head.

"I suppose nothing is below you, Olivia."

"Like you can talk, Phil."

Tony looks back and forth between the two adults. The people he liked before were now going against the scary woman who might let him go. Fun.

"Let's just everything out on the table, now. Shall we?" Coulson asks.

"I was under the impression that everything was laid out." Stane says, the glimmer in her eye gave away her curiosity.

Clearly something's going on here Tony thinks. These people are even crazier than normal. That's saying something.

"Director Fury just came to us with new information." Captain America steps forward and tells her, though he did not appear to be exactly bursting at the seam to tell anyone anything.

Stane purses her lips.

"Go on."

"Project Beta appears to be back under investigation again."

A pin drop could have been heard in the next beat of silence with at least Captain America looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Is there anything else or are you just waving around the biggest turnaround for anything this organization has ever come across?"

Coulson blinks but decides that now may be the appropriate time to stay in the neutral.

"So," Tony starts, ignoring the urge to not talk or do anything that would bring attention onto himself. "What's Project Beta?"

Stane sighs and brings her hand up to her temple while shaking her head.

"Project Beta is none of anyone's concern anymore and I am appalled Fury would drag it up again.." She insists.

Coulson and Hawkeye share a glance.

"That's helpful." Tony mumbles.

"This organization has come across many pieces of technology from many different places and to simplify things they are often given codenames." Coulson starts. "As you've been informed,-"

"Ugh. Laptop. Laptop. Laptop. Obsessive much? Find a new question or check into a mental facility because according to Einstein, you're going crazy."

Olivia sighs.

"He's just a boy." She insists. "You can't expect him to understand these things."

"No, he has a point. Look at us. We are being crazy." Hawkeye motions around the group. he's hand slows down suggestively at Olivia before continuing the circle. "He already knows about the laptop and some new name isn't going to change anything to him."

"I agree completely. We have gotten nowhere."

"Not nowhere. We have leads on the doctor now." Bruce pipes up.

Olivia laughs.

"Until the doctor is secured in an interview run in front of my eyes, we have nothing."

Coulson nods his head to show that he at least slightly agrees and Stane continues to plow forward.

"And that is what can actually be remedied with Mr. Jones's help."

"What?" Tony suddenly perks his head up. "No, I can't. I'm useless. Go back to talking about how useless I am."

"Tony, it is very clear that Dr. Albrecht knows only what he thinks he knows."

"Yes, well, it must have been very difficult to come to that conclusion." Tony mimics the woman before he can stop himself.

"And it would be rational to assume, as much as I do detest assuming, that he is still very interested in acquiring you."

"Wait a minute." Steve cuts in and scans the room like he was searching for someone hidden in the shadows. "What are you trying to say here?"

"SHIELD has on multiple occasions used assets to draw out-"

"Tony is a boy not some asset."

Coulson sees this as a good opportunity to help the situation himself.

"Those situations were admittedly extreme," He directs to Stane and then turns to point a finger to Steve. "And they are always extremely safe to all participants."

"Then you do agree with me." Olivia doesn't bother to phrase it as a question.

"No." Steve insists. He lowers his voice and avoids Tony's eye. Not that Tony was trying to catch his eye. "This discussion is completely crossing the line."

"Like they have any lines around here." Bruce mutters.

"Okay, okay. We're all going to stop this right now." Coulson tells them. "No decisions have been made but I assure you when they have been made, you can each bring all of our concerns to me as loudly as you wish."

"I feel like I should be able to go first." Tony says and the adults snap back to remembering that he was in the room. That's really a comfort to Tony.

"Sure, Tony. In fact, you can talk my ear off the whole way back to your room."

"That box is not my room and I don't want to go back there. I'd rather finish this conversation."

"This conversation is over."

"Doesn't sound over to me."

"It is."

"That's debatable."

"No, it's not."

Stane snorts silently and walks off to a glass office in the corner. The glass darkens till Tony can no longer see into the room by the time the door had shut behind her.

"Well, she's definitely done with this conversation." Hawkeye says. "Come on kid. I'll take him around town for a while till he falls asleep or something."

"You aren't familiar with actual living people, are you?" Tony asks him.

"Nope. Not at all. Let's go." Clint says then hooks his arm around Tony's arm and leads him out toward the elevator. Tony doesn't bother to fight it. There would be more time to argue later and this guy seemed like the one he would least mind to be stuck with. He was free to that opinion changing at any time, though.

"Clint, I'm not sure if this is the best idea." Coulson shouts after them but he too saw the futility of putting in a real effort of changing the other man's mind.

Hawkeye salutes his team as the door slides shut and Tony rolls his eyes.

This was not going Tony's way.

Coulson would almost like to roll his eyes to as Hawkeye salutes them. It's probably better that he does not, though, as Steve visible tenses.

Captain America waits till the doors close shut to finally say what was boiling beneath his skin.

"You have got to be kidding me. This situation is rolling way too far out of control. The laptop. The boy. Beta. And now even exploring the possibility of using the kid as bait."

"Calm down, Steve." Natasha pipes up from her silent judgement of the situation.

"Natasha, yes. Let's have your opinion on this matter. You haven't said much yet."

"I prefer to keep my cards close around that woman."

"Great, now, I'm not suggesting that we just leave Mr. Jones on some street with a tracking device stuck on one of his shoes. Olivia just made a point that the next step to retrieving what we need is through Dr. Albrecht."

"It is a decent point." Natasha gives, making Steve throw up his hands.

Coulson cuts him off before Steve can begin ranting again.

"I believe that the only person who is going to be making a final decision on this it Fury and Stane did slink off to her office which, correct me if I'm wrong, does have a phone capable of reaching the director himself."

"There is no possible way Fury would approve a plan like this." Steve insists.

"Fury doesn't like losing and he lost a lot with Project Beta."

"Lost a lot? Four people died and one of them a child at that. I don't plan on letting anyone else getting hurt."

Coulson winces.

"Tony seems like a good kid, Steve," He starts but then adjusts. "when accounting for the fact that he does suffer from being a teenager. The name is discomforting to all of us but know that no one is going to let anything happen to him. You've seen that file. We're probably helping him with all more than anything. He was not in a good place."

Steve crosses his arm and sighs.

"I haven't even asked Tony about that. No parents in that part of town, my God."

"Yes, okay. We're on the same page again."

"I'm still not comfortable with Tony being in Clint's care."

"That is included in being on the same page."

 **Rate and Review. I love my reviewers.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

 **Wow, it's been a while. I am truly sorry about that. You'll be glad to know that I've made some big changes to how I conduct my writing now. To start with, I'll be updating each week on either Monday or Tuesday. Up here at the beginning, I'll write my review responses each week for the previous chapter and at the bottom, I have previews for the next chapter. Enjoy and be assured that this story is in progress again.**

* * *

"You gave him a bow and arrows?" Steve rasps with disbelief clear in his eyes. "We left you alone with Tony for all of half an hour and you brought him to an Avenger's training room, not exactly known for being the safest area in the helicopter, and gave him a dangerous weapon?"

"Um...Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Hawkeye tries his most charming apologetic look and scratches the back of his head.

Captain America seems at a loss for what to say.

"Oh, come on." Clint tries to defend himself. "Who's ever gotten hurt while _shooting_ a bow and arrow? It's not like I got one out, took aim, and fired at the kid."

"How am I supposed to know you didn't?" The buff man motions over to the arrows dotting the walls and targets across the wall.

"That was just the kid. We were playing a game."

"There are acceptable and unacceptable games to play with children and you should know well enough where this falls. Come on, guys." Steve looks over his shoulder to the other Avengers who were refusing to participate in the conversation. "Will no one else help me on this?"

"Why don't you ask me what I think?" Tony speaks up from his apparently invisible corner. He tries to not look like he had just broken some rule or something which is difficult because that does happen to be his natural posture from years of experience.

Rubbing back his hair, Steve sighs.

"I'm sorry, Anthony, but Clint should not have brought you down here."

"I'm not five."

"And yet you were playing a game with the man child over there." Natasha seems to almost be teasing and grins just a little over to the teen.

Tony couldn't tell if it was nice or creepy that she was trying to be friendly and cool with him. Probably scary. Scary should be the choice word when you think a spy is trying to do anything to you.

"Haha."

Huh, look at that. Sarcasm was still his chosen response to everything.

Whizzing past the group, an arrow lodges itself right up against another in the center of one of the farthest targets.

"I win again." Clint whoops. "You know what that means."

Great, Tony wonders how he got suckered into this game in the first place. Probably because he's a big sucker in a big sucker's world where everyone runs around and gets suckered into limos then helicarriers then games of archery against a trained archer when you've only seen the first fifteen minutes of Brave.

"Clint, geez." Captain looks over to Tony with a flash of concern in his eye like he was expecting the teen to curl up in a corner at the first loud noise or fast object in his path.

"It's fine." Tony mutters, shrugging his shoulders. "We're just playing a game. It's…" Tony feels the teenager part of himself throw up a little at admitting this. "Fun, I guess."

"See." Clint cheers a moment to himself. "The kid likes it. Now, pay up, kid."

"Fine," Tony rolls his eyes. "What do you want to know?"

A moment of Clint over acting his contemplation ensues. "So, you claim your favorite food is pizza? What's your favorite topping?"

A wave of confusion spreads to the others in the room. Except for Black Widow. Tony wishes he could always seem like he knew exactly what was going on the situation.

"What?" Bruce is the first to ask the obvious question, letting Tony grumble more to himself before having to answer.

"It's the game." Clint gives his best duh impression. Apparently being around a teenager wasn't the best kind of influence to the man. "If he wins by getting an arrow anywhere on any target, then he gets to ask me a question. If I win by hitting the center of those moving targets at the far end of the room, then I get to ask him a question."

"I feel like you might have an unfair advantage, Hawkeye." Bruce raises his eyebrows and Tony groans. He figured that it wouldn't matter whatever questions he was asked as long as he got to ask one of his own questions. It wasn't like he couldn't just lie if he wanted to even if that left some risks for Hawkeye lying too.

Not that any of this matters since he apparently will never win.

"Oh, yeah." Clint nods. "Hey, Tony. How many times have you won?"

"None." He grumbles and earns a few hidden grins around the room to his unhappiness. "None times so far. And pepperoni, I guess."

"And how many times have I won?"

"Hawkeye…" Captain America can't help the little bit of a laugh in his scolding.

"Five." Tony answers before the super soldier pulls himself completely together to continue. "You've won five times."

Hawkeye spins his bow around his hand and looks too proud of himself for beating a sixteen year old teen.

Tony makes a note to himself that he will approve his aim at some point in the future. Okay, that's probably not true. He'll probably just look up on Google how to improve his aim then get distracted by something way more interesting than a skill that would only benefit him if he were somehow a part of a superhero team.

"You may have won, but your questions are stupid."

"What did you ask?" Steve crosses his arms.

"Well,-"

"It was just about food or music." Tony interrupts. "It wasn't even about anything important or whatever."

"Did you know this kid likes AC/DC?" Clint points over to the group. "I have to admit, I thought it was going to be emo. Don't kids like emo these days?"

Tony groans and steps up back toward the targets. He doesn't make too much of a fool of himself this time when he pulls back the bow and takes what he figures would be an okay stance or at least he figures he doesn't.

He isn't pointing it backwards this time. Or upside down. That would be bad whether he was aiming toward his eye or his foot.

The arrow flies straight and it's the best one he's done this entire game.

It still misses by about a foot.

"Okay, let's stop the game before something happens." Steve says his final warning to Hawkeye and Tony.

"I haven't gotten to ask my question yet. Any of them." Tony protests, swinging around with a gaping look to Steve.

"You can ask us whatever questions you want to know without winning some kind of insane game."

"What's Project Beta?"

"Except some things." Steve purses his lips and looks like he is in physical pain.

"Is it what's in the laptop?"

"It's complicated."

Wow, this is getting Tony really far.

"That's great. Why do you guys hate Stane so much?"

"We don't hate Olivia."

Hawkeye groans behind him and elicits an exasperated look from Capt.

"Do you see why I had to agree to this game now?" The teen asks. "If we could actually play a fair game, then maybe I would be getting somewhere." He grumbles.

What feels like a long beat passes between the group as everyone tries to figure out where to go from here. It's not like anyone had an experience with it.

During the time, Steve looks away from the group. All of them. Whatever was crossing his mind was hidden to them.

"What game do you want to play?"

For a moment, Tony thought that somehow Hawkeye or maybe even Window's, because she hasn't acted anything near like he would have figured, voice was actually coming out of Captain America mouth because he was the one asking the question.

"Really?" Tony raises his eyebrows.

"Yep. You can choose a game that's not archery to play Hawkeye."

"Why?"

Steve shakes his head.

"I believe the rules state that you only get to ask a question if you win. So what game do you want to play?"

"Well…" Tony smirks, not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

* * *

The computer terminals glows on in front of them, lighting up the different work tables in one of the new rooms Tony was just introduced to.

"This is what you want to do?" Hawkeye asks, looking completely disturbed at what Tony was trying to explain.

"Yeah, whoever makes best mechanical power circuit in three minutes wins. It's simple. Back in grade school, I had to do a competition with circuits in a science class. It was with marshmallows, but I think the principle was secretly impressed when he was suspending me for a week afterwards for the explosion."

"You're just going to let him do this?" Clint looks over to Steve with big eyes.

"It seems educational to me."

"I think it's a little more educational than you figure, Steve." Bruce speaks up. He looks over to Tony like he couldn't decide if he was just trying to make up words or not. "You really want to build a mechanical power circuit in three minutes?"

"Yep."

 **Three minutes and thirty seconds later**

"I win." Tony gloats, gesturing down to the complete and running circuit in front of him. It glows with a brighter blue than any of the lights in the room.

Clint throws down his tweezers onto his work table. In front of was a partially completed circuit. Being a superspy does lead to him learning about most everything. Even so, though this task was slightly above him.

"I think...this was rigged."

He looks back and forth from both of their final products.

"I think Tony has a lot more under his sleeves than we thought." Bruce studies the circuit. "Tony, what highschool do you attend?"

"Did I attend," He corrects. "And when? I went to three."

"Any of them." Bruce tries to ignore the past tense.

"I don't know." Tony shrugs, thinking back. He obviously remembered, but didn't really feel like having to go back to those memories. "Enter-American-war-hero's-name-here public school."

"Public schools?" He laughs. "I'm impressed. Have you ever been tested for advanced intelligence.?"

"No."

"Why not? It seems like-"

Tony's expression darkens at the scientist/hulk's pushing on the topic.

"I didn't want to be tested, okay."

Bruce's eyes widen and he nods, pulling off his glasses.

"Okay." He repeats.

"Good, now, I believe it's my turn to ask a question." He glances between the adults as if he was waiting for one of them to say no.

"Go ahead." Steve says, raising a hand for a moment.

Feeling suddenly strange, Tony swallows and lets himself hesitate for a moment. What was he doing? Ask your questions, Tony, he berates himself. The memory of Hawkeye's stupid questions keep coming back to himself.

"What…" The question is on the top of his lips.

He imagines their faces if he just asked a stupid question like Clint had.

They would probably smile a lot. Maybe, even Bruce even if he did kind of just snap at him for no good reason.

It would different from what he usually does.

Not that there's anything wrong with what he usually does. It had kept him alive.

This was a different situation, though.

Who was he kidding? He knew perfectly well why he just wanted to go with some silly question.

"Can I check out those advanced computer terminals we passed on the way up here? Cause they look sweet."

Tony tries to convince himself it was just because he knew they would have lied or not really answered the question anyway. He would figure it out on his own. He always did.

* * *

Steve and Clint walk side by side as they turn away from the room or 'box' as Tony put it that they had just dropped the team off at.

"So, why'd you let him choose another game. I was almost sure you would lock him right back up in that room the moment you found us."

"Why did you start that game to begin with?" Steve counters after a beat.

Clint laughs.

"Yeah, I get it, but I'm cool with young people."

"Maybe, I was trying to be cool too."

"Nah." Hawkeye drones. "Or at least that's not the full reason. You want him to know what's going on a little bit, don't you?"

The super soldier walks a little faster.

"Of course not. He's sixteen. It's our jobs to keep civilians away from these things."

"Yeah, but you have to admit that this time, it might do the kid a little good to have some idea of what he's been sucked into the middle. It's not like Fury will ever agree to it."

Steve doesn't answer.

"Come one, the kid's a genius. Did you hear all those smart people questions he and Bruce were talking about around the computers? He might even understand what Bruce is talking about when he goes off about the worldwide implications of what's on that computer."

"Don't go there, Clint. We just need to get what's on the laptop and turn it over to the people here who might be able to do some good with it. It's what Howard would want." Steve stops at the corner, but doesn't look over to Clint. "I think this whole thing is dragging up a lot of forgotten memories because I just can't keep Howard out of mind. Everything seems to remind me of him these days."

Hawkeye nods and lets Steve stay wrapped up in his thoughts.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, Tony is visited by a dangerous and unexpected guest in his room.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Nobody- Here you go!**

 **MarburyBlur- There will be plenty of awesome Tony. He is pretty awesome. It's just difficult to find positions where the other adults around him will actually let him do something.**

 **SaraSnow- I know and I feel very guilty about that. Hopefully, people will be able to keep up with everything from now on.**

 **Spitfire303- Thanks!**

 **Chaoshift- I was just trying to figure out what Hawkeye might do in the situation. Naturally, I didn't go toward the most responsible thing to chose.**

 **Fangirl01music- Thanks! Here you go.**

* * *

It only takes Tony a couple hours later to completely and utterly regret every decision he's made up to this point.

He asked if he could use the computers. Idiot. He was a complete idiot.

"Every single time." He mutters to himself, looking at the ceiling above him. "You did this every single time."

From all the early experiences Tony had, there was a similar pattern that had taken a long time to first realize even existed. Places always seen better at first than later on. People always seemed better at first than later on.

He gets just a bit comfortable.

He starts to give just a little bit every time they ask him to.

Things go downhill and he's left hanging in the air with nothing to stand on until he finally meets the ground again. Okay, hits the ground again.

This is a kid's move and he had thought he had figured that a long time ago. Why did he even bother getting himself out of the system, if he was just going to find a way to screw himself over all on his own.

This isn't even a normal situation. He's thousands and thousands and thousands of feet above the ground and yet he's doing the same thing to himself.

Just great.

He considers just refusing to talk to anyone ever again. He could just stop all contact with all people ever. Find some way off of this boat/plane thing and move to a cave somewhere in some desert.

Caves can be fun, right?

Yeah, he's kidding himself. A cave would stink big time. Caves have always creeped himself out.

Tony sighs and crosses his arms under his pillow. He fluffs up the already softer than he had ever been used to in forever pillow, moving his gaze around the room and warding off the thoughts of situations that would do him no good.

Those computers were pretty awesome. All the fancy bells and whistles without any of the PTSD from a stupid laptop.

Tony allows himself a small, little glimmer of a chuckle from that little memory.

In all of these thoughts, Tony doesn't notice for a moment when a patch of light in the center of his rooms glimmers just a bit differently than before. He does notice a moment later, though when the light warps and blinds him for a split second.

The teen curses at the new figure in front of him.

A man appears from the sudden burst of light, looking around and immediately springing into action.

Unfortunately, since the room is only so big and plain to a fault, the Asian appearing man focuses almost completely on Tony in a second.

Tony just has the ability to sit up in the bed, banging his head against the top posts.

"And who are you?" The man tilts his head, surprising Tony by stopping himself and not moving any closer to the boy.

"Um," Tony blinks, extremely unsure of the proper response to this situation. It wasn't like the man in front of him was exactly largely built or anything, but his means of getting into Tony's room was highly suspicious. "Nonayour."

"What?"

"Well,"

The man holds up his hand and smiles.

"Wait a second," He points to Tony, looking him up and down. "I do know who you are. There have been rumors about you since one of the others escaped. Excuse me, attempted to escape."

"Yeah, well, apparently they need to bump up security down there."

"Looks can be deceiving. And it seems that plans can change" The man laughs and quickly waves his hand as if wiping away the topic. "It's time for us to go now."

"Um, no." Tony shakes his head.

"No?"

Tony stands up slowly from the bed and backs toward the other corner of the white room.

"I would very much prefer not to go anywhere with you." The teen says, not sure whether to nod his head up or down.

"That would probably be a good choice. Unfortunately, I don't often let teenagers dictate my life actions, Anthony."

"How do you know who am I?" Tony backs up to the wall as the other in the room approaches him. He flashes back to what the man had said before "Why are there rumors about me down there?"

"You have gotten on the radar of many dangerous people. Once the attempted escape saw you, those of us who are locked up for one thing or another tended to hear about it." He says as he finally reaches Tony and places one hand onto the young genius' arm.

The world warps around Tony is a flash of colors and sounds that he had never thought of to have completely existed before.

He's choking on air by the time Tony finds himself back in the solid world again.

"What…" Choking. "Was…" Continued sputtering. "That?"

"Oh, don't worry so much." The man is already up effortlessly and holds out his hands. "I have steady hands."

"That," Tony finishes coughing. "That doesn't answer my question." The teen finally gets to looking around to his new location. It's much darker than before and in a hallway with pipelines surrounding every inch of wall.

Tony hears the steam moving through the pipes.

"What just...How did we get here?"

"I was captured a while back by a very bad organization." He moves toward the other end of the hallway as if he knew exactly where he was going.

"They did something to you?"

He looks back to Tony expectantly.

"Maybe."

Tony hesitates and looks back to the opposite end of the hallway. It seems to him like the only difference between the two happens to be the occupants.

"Is that a maybe like you don't know or a maybe like you aren't going to tell me?"

The man nods.

"That's great." Tony winces at the many un-answers he was getting.

He had heard of supernatural powers for years and years. Seeing someone and actually feeling their powers, though, was completely different.

The man suddenly springs forward before Tony could react.

He hooks his arm around Tony's and pulls the teenager forward. Tony is pretty surprised by this guy's grip and although he's pretty sure he might be able to shake it, he doesn't. Tony blames it on the shock of the situation when the little logical piece of his brain begins to scream at him.

"Let's keep moving if we want this conversation to last."

Tony has to drag along his legs to keep up with the pace the Asian man was setting.

"Why are you not just teleporting, now?" Tony grits out.

"It's more difficult with many people."

"Really? How? I mean…" How did they mess up your DNA enough to be able to do this super freaky, super awesome thing, but then have all these weird side limits? Yeah, Tony. That would be a good question to ask.

"I am still figuring that out completely myself. I believe it was an accident, so it has been increasingly difficult to understand."

Tony scrunches his eyebrows.

"But what did they do?" He tries to pull more information out of the man. "Chemicals, technology. I hear alien technology-"

"It was alien. I'm not so sure technology is the right word for it, though."

"What's the right word, then?"

"I don't know. If you're so interested, maybe, you will come up with it one day."

"Wow," Tony murmurs. "These are great answers."

"And yet you haven't run from me."

Tony glances down. "It's not like there's much of a point in running from someone who can just teleport anywhere you run to."

"True," He pauses. "Do you know why I brought you down here, Anthony, when I realized who you were?"

"No." Tony takes a second to answer. He hadn't even considered his lack of consideration toward the man's motives. There were kind of pressing issues in science.

"I'm an apparent criminal. Is is so much of a stretch to come up with a situation in your mind."

Tony trips slightly on his own feet, but rights himself with the help of the man.

"You don't seem like a criminal. Other than the kidnapping."

"Why would I be locked up if I weren't?"

A moment of contemplation hangs between them.

"Fine, I'll bite." Tony'll just chose what to bite on. "Why did you take me here? What do you want with me." Tony stops moving forward and shakes his head. He smooths down the many wrinkles gathering in his shirt.

The man doesn't answer immediately, but he does make a small noise in the back of his throat. He stops and turns to Tony.

"Interesting choice of question. Not the one I was expecting."

"Hey, I'm locked up in this place too. Where am I to judge?" Tony says dully and steels his legs. The Asian man has to jerk to a stop as Tony halts and refuses to be pulled forward any longer. Tony glances up to the lights slightly flicking above him and blinks.

The teen really did have other worries than the guy's crimes. It's not like he really wanted to know if he was some crazy serial killer at this point.

The man's eyes narrow slightly.

"I believe we have reached a stopping point." He says. "What do you think, Anthony. What decisions have you come to?"

Tony blanks, trying to remember any part of the conversation where he was making decisions.

"About what?"

The man shrugs.

"That's up to you isn't it. I just take people from one place to another."

"All you did was take me to a different part of the heli-thing I'm stuck in. I wouldn't consider that some big accomplishment, although it is pretty darn creepy down here, I'll give you that."

The man grins again.

Tony finally realizes that this was just the man's way of changing the subject. Questions for a question can sure tear things off track.

"Why did you bring me here?" Tony demands again.

The man hesitates just a moment.

"To tell you the truth, I was considering trading you to an outlet that goes through Hydra quite often. You're not exactly a Jericho Missile, but what's in your head sounds very important at the least. "

Tony has to force himself not to show the shock on his face. He's not quite sure how well he does, but at least he tries.

"But you're not considering it now, right?"

"Eh,"

"Eh?" Tony copies him in a much higher pitch.

"I probably won't."

"That's...comforting." Was it worth it to run from someone who could teleport?

"Don't worry. I don't feel much of a desire to do so anymore." The man suddenly looks almost shallow now in his eyes. And sad. Extremely sad. "I only want to be with my family again."

"Oh." Tony swallows, feeling the press of emotions on his chest that hadn't been there for a long time.

"So, what are you planning to do with me?"

"I'm not sure. I'm considering leaving the decision to you. That is why I asked you."

"Considering?"

"I'm leaning away from it."

A banging suddenly resounds from above them.

"That was fast. Yes, I think I'll take you with me for now at least. I'm not fond of these people either."

Tony's eyes widen a he realizes the man in front of him's intention and he ducks to the left just in time to avoid a sudden eruption above him as a life-sized hulk crashes from above. The hallway fills with steam from the pipes that have broken and poke out from every inch of the walls.

The interruption doesn't go in his favor, though, as it actually distracts him from avoiding the grasp of the Asian man and he feels himself starting to drift again out of solarity.

Out of the corner of his eye, he catches a green finger brush against the man's leg and the drowning feeling is quickly squelched out as he finds himself deposited just a hundred or so feet down the hall with his would-be kidnapper left beside him, holding on to his left leg and looking very much like he would want to curse right then.

The Asian man regrettable shakes his head and glances one last time over to Tony.

A voice echoes down the hallway from the other side over giant, thundering footsteps.

"Ho Yinsen, stand down and step away from the boy."

Yinsen looks away from Tony and seems to make a decision.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, the ratifications of actions play out inside of the helicarrier.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

 **Review Responses:**

 **The Shifting- I love pulling out some familiar names from the original sources.**

 **Sarah Snow- I wasn't expecting Yinsen wither. The teleporter started out as just some random muscle man, but then all of a sudden Yinsen popped into my mind and boom...All of a sudden I had a character that did and will do a lot more for the story than my original version.**

* * *

"Ho Yinsen, stand down and step away from the boy." A voice echoes down the hallway from the other side over giant, thundering footsteps.

Yinsen looks away from Tony and seems to make a decision.

He disappears, leaving Tony alone at the end of the hallway and dazed to whether he had just imagined the entire thing.

"Tony, Tony are you okay?" Suddenly Hawkeye is standing over him.

That's a good question. The thought pops into the teenager's mind, but it's not like he even has that much time to think it over.

"I'm fine. I think." He murmurs and finds himself being pulled up by the thick arms of the Avenger.

"You think? Okay, well that's not a good enough answer."

Tony blinks a few times in the dust that now floats throughout the air like a fog since the ceiling had been attacked by a Hulk.

"Um, I'm fine completely then. No uncertainty there at all." Tony frowns as Hawkeye raises his eyebrows.

"Clint." Captain America shouts from the other side. "Is he okay?"

Tony rolls his eyes and looks down to where Clint has a hand protectively around one of his right arm. It occurs to him that he's not five and he snaps back to reality and shakes his arm free.

"He's good." Clint replies and then looks around. "Where exactly did Hulk-"

Hawkeye is cut off as a figure launches itself through the wall behind them and can barely stop himself from crashing through the next wall.

The Hulk roars and shakes his head back and forth before his eyes settle on Tony and narrow.

Tony freezes as Clint just tenses slightly behind him.

"Kid...Okay?" Hulk's question has Clint visible relaxing.

"Yeah, the kid's good." Hawkeye answers as Captain America runs up behind them. "How's Dr. Banner doing?"

The Hulk snorts and shakes his head.

"We might need him pretty soon. He's kind of the best doctor in the house and Tony need a little checkup after all of this."

Clint looks over to Tony who blanches at him, realizing that he had totally just been stuck into this position.

"Um, yeah." Tony starts a little too loudly and Clint barely hides a smirk. "I mean, I guess he can flicker one of those flashlights in front of my eyes."

Steve steps in front of Tony and walks toward Hulk.

"Thank you, Hulk. You've done good."

The green guy nods and walks back through the hole in the wall he had come through. He disappears much quicker than Tony would have thought he could.

"That went really well." Clint says, shaking out his arms and looking around at the various amounts of destruction. "Better than usual at least."

"How's it going on the higher levels?"

Clint pulls out his side phone and taps a few buttons.

"Good," He answers. "It looks like the breakout was contained to just one block of cells and the rest of the occupants have been tracked down by Widow."

"She was right before, you know." Steve tells him and faces Tony, giving him the old once over.

"Yep, that last incident was a setup." He starts, shaking his head. "They used the teleporter relic as a coverup to test how to really stop the fields we use to block out Yinsen's teleporting abilities."

"Someone's staging all these breakouts on purpose?" Tony asks, looking up to the men. His faces displays a lot of the disbelief he's feeling at the terrible security this place apparently has. It's getting ridicules.

"It seems like it." Steve nods. "Believe me when I say, things don't usually work this way."

"Really? It kind of seems like you guys are really chill with this. It's bordering on like creepy, actually, how chill this all seems to you when a guy just randomly teleports into your cell and somehow recognizes you and-"

"It's not a cell." Clint grumbles. "And you've got one of the best not-cells too and...Did you say he teleported directly into your cell."

"Yeah."

"He didn't look in from outside or anything and then teleport into your cell."

"So now it is a cell again?"

"Don't be cute." Clint is all business.

"Fine, no. He just popped in."

Steve and Clint share a glance at each other, one that Tony can't get a very good read on right then.

"What?" Tony asks. "Why does that matter?"

"That was either or a very nice coincidence of a breakout for Yinsen, popping into the room of some of the best leverage in SHIELD, or this was all planned somehow around you, Tony."

* * *

Coulson sits down heavily onto the chair in front of the large desk.

"Please, tell me we have something more on the doctor." He sighs. "Where he is. What he's doing. How we can go about to actually bringing him down this time."

Fury brings down the files he had been studying intently before. He throws the file in his hand across the desk to Coulson who barely glances down at it.

He figures Fury couldn't resist the chance to explain himself.

"I ran a couple tests on the kid."

"That sounds morbid."

Fury gives him a look.

"Only on what we could get from a water bottle we gave to him."

"And…" Coulson urges him on, but looks blank.

"It seems like you already know what the results are going to." Fury glances out this week's office's many windows. "You see it too. I can hardly believe more people can't."

"I think they can. They just don't believe it. Yet."

"You would think after the aliens they would be a little more open minded."

"You would think after a lot of things they would be open minded. So what did they find with the water bottle?"

Fury gestures down to the file.

"It's a match. Completely."

"How long have you known?" Coulson finally picks up the files if only to see those names printing out again.

"I got the results a day ago."

"So how long have you known?" Coulson repeats.

Fury stands up from his chair and steps over to the window he had previously been staring out of.

"Do you want to know what I was doing the day this entire thing, the laptop, the Starks, blew up?"

Coulson remains silent.

"I was standing right here in this office. I got the call an hour after it happened and you know what I heard on the other end of that line?"

"What?"

"A little kid just screaming his head off. I'd seen that little boy a dozen times, but I could barely recognize his voice from how long he must have been screaming." Fury says. "I had to make a decision. The laptop was gone, but I knew they wouldn't be able to open it and was assured when I didn't see signs of it within the year.. The project was in it's final stages at that point. It's beta testing, if you were wondering where I chose the name from. If they had opened the laptop, they would have been able to build it."

"There was still the kid, though."

"There was still the kid, though. He was just three." Fury lets out a harsh laugh. "Tony was already smart, though. You should see some of the things we've dug up on him so far. The kid has a thing with computers. Who knows what else if he actually had some resources."

"I've heard about it. After a little investigating through his laptops, they found in his apartment, not the best one in New York, the tech guys found his digital fingerprints on a few of our servers. They would have never known." Coulson sets down the file lightly on the desk. "But anyway, you think that three year old might have come off a little too smart for his own good?"

"It sounds crazy, doesn't it?"

Coulson shrugs noncommittally.

"I did the right thing. Maybe, I have to think that, but I big part of me still says Anthony would have been killed within a month if he hadn't already been dead."

"You dropped him in front of the church."

"I didn't have him dropped anywhere. I asked specifically not to know myself. He was supposed to be dead. And safe." Fury adds.

The sky darkens as a covering of cloud begins to move in over the blue.

"What are you going to do now?"

Fury looks over to Coulson and tilts his head. He turns away from the clouds with his jacket flapping back behind him.

"Anthony Stark is dead. Things need to stay that way."

"They're going to figure it out. Goodness knows, Hydra already has."

"Well, then maybe we need to kill him again."

* * *

Stane pushes back her hair and smiles at her best intern entering the room in an almost breakneck pace.

He hadn't been working in the office long, but he seemed to have at least some dedication to the their work. He certainly seems to always be around, not that she's bothered to learn his name yet. It starts with a t or an r maybe.

"Do you have what I sent you to get?" She asks him, fully turning her chair around to face him.

"Yes, Dr. Stane." He lifts up the sealed file in his hand and holds it out to her. She motions for him to set it her desk and he does.

"Thank you."

Stane waves her hand and the intern nods after a pause and leaves the office to go off to one of the other busy work stations outside her office.

She allows herself a moment before looking at it. Anything that had Anthony Jones's name anywhere near it was being directed to her through a few not so moral means, but this had been by far the trickiest to procure.

It had taken her more than a usual few hours.

Just finding out that it existed took some higher level sources than she would rather have gone through.

She picks up the envelope and balances it between her fingertips, moving her other hand over to her letter opener. It was engraved with her father's initials, but that wasn't much of a problem considering they matched completely.

She once again swears to herself she'll finish this for him.

The paper slides out easily from the manilla envelope. It's crisp and practically still warm from the printer. She has to give it to the intern for his speed.

The results stare her in the face and she smiles again, this time for real.

"A match. Isn't that interesting."

She sets the file back down onto her desk then seems to change her mind and pushes it into a desk draw.

"What to do with this?" She taps the letter opener gently against the wood.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, not everyone is happy when Fury reveals a plan to bring the matter of the laptop to a close.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Sara Snow- Thank you. I really appreciate it.**

 **Skylaeatpie- Here you go! Enjoy!**

* * *

Coulson tugs his cuffs straight another time, checking the plain cuff links he wears with them every day.

He's not exactly looking forward to this conversation whether or not it might be his job to do whatever Fury needs him to do. It's not his job to be happy with it.

And this is something he's not sure if he completely agrees with.

That unfortunately has to be put on the backburner as he hears the bickering starting in the room. He stops just behind the door.

"You're the Avengers. Don't you have anything better to be doing right now.?" The teen protests openly to adults around him. The superhero adults. Coulson has to give him credit where credit's due for guts.

"No. We do not." Thors voice booms unexpectedly in the room and Coulson almost gives in to the urge to chuckle at the Asgardian's unrecognizing-of-sarcasm tone.

"I don't…" Tony's sentence dies out. "Know what to do about you, Thor."

"What do you mean? Just think of me as another Avenger."

"That doesn't help."

"Tony," Captain America stops them from continuing. "I don't think you realize the seriousness of this situation." Steve says, his arms crossed as he is the only one standing off the the side of the large table of the briefing room. "People are targeting you, very dangerous people."

"Yeah, I was there. All of the times. None of them were fun." Tony groans and swivels in his chair from one side to the other. "But that doesn't mean you have to be like always watching me."

"Constant protection means constant. We can't leave you alone anymore." Bruce tells him.

"Fine, whatever, but why so many of you?"

"We won't always all be around all the time." Steve sighs. "We're here together for a briefing on how exactly we're going to continue on with all of this."

"Maybe you guys could go catch all the evil dudes like you're supposed to and then I can leave and-"

"We need to discuss that, Tony." Steve stops him.

"Nope, we don't. We definitely don't."

"You're underaged."

"I'll get emancipated from the state."

"How are you going to support yourself?"

"I was doing it fine before."

Coulson has to lean closer to the door to hear what is said next by Steve.

"You were stealing before."

The sound of Tony rolling his eyes seems to echo through the doorway.

"It's still stealing even if you can't see the people you were hurting, Tony." Filters through the door with a thick pulse of silence.

"Woah, Steve-" Clint interrupts them.

"Okay." Coulson breaks up the party, shutting the door with a little too much force. He holds up the laminated copies of the files in his hand. "Let's begin. This is how this is going to go."

A view eyebrows raise around the room at his tone. Most high were Clint's.

It was quite an interesting sight to see. An Asgardian who hasn't shown up for a while and seems to be enjoying the swivel chairs, a super soldier standing to the side of the room behind a sulking teenager with a particularly complicated past, two super spies sitting on the other side of the table leaving a space between each one, and then to the other side a currently dehulked hulk.

"This is how what's going to go?" Tony asks, clearly trying to move on from the previous conversation behind his slightly blotched face. "Wait, which one are you?"

Phil chooses to ignore him and hand out files to each of the Avengers. It was a rare treat to be able to brief all of them at once.

"Not important."

"Seems kind of important to me." Tony watches Coulson give out the last file. "Where's mine?"

"Look on."

"What would I be looking on to?" Tony seems to take a moment to decide between the group of whom exactly he would be looking over the shoulder of.

Both Hawkeye and Bruce tilt their papers down slightly as if to give room for the teen to move over to him then glance up at each other with a little surprise. Their gazes switch quickly over to Tony in between them.

Tony has the sudden realization that they're expecting him to choose.

"Um,"

"Here." Steve hands Tony his own file and sits down between the teen and Bruce. Coulson nods to him and sits down at the end of the table.

"Interesting." Widow murmurs, eyeing Clint and his suddenly much more sour disposition. "So what's the plan?" She begins to flip through the file as everyone else does too.

A page catches her eye that is spotted with a certain occupant of the room's name.

"Director Fury has decided that the best course of action will be to draw out Dr. Albrecht directly."

"How is he planning to do that?" Steve asks as the person in the room without the printed briefing.

Tony flops down his file.

"I don't exactly know all of the spy lingo, but does when it says use the asset as to draw out Dr. Al, does that mean that I'm like glorified bait?"

"Not glorified. Just bait." Clint flips through his pages.

"What?" Steve looks over to Coulson. He turns the chair so hard that the hinges at its bottom creak and practically break. "Is Stane trying to push this?"

"I'm not sure about her opinion on this matter. She is being brought up to date by the Director." Coulson tells him. "The important thing is that we have one of the best opportunities to get Albrecht since the miracle that last week when he was on the street." Tony shifts guiltily in his chair.

"He's going to know it's a setup." Clients says.

"Maybe not. SHIELD has had multiple breaches over the past few days."

Tony laughs, interrupting him but Coulson continues.

"The news spread through some channels we haven't been able to identify at this point, but the point is that Hydra knows and we can use it to spin some threads of our own. We make it seem like Tony was taken by Yinsen and set up a fake meet to sell him."

"Can you not use the word sell?" Tony asks him. "And won't they know that you guys obviously aren't that Yinsen dude?"

"We'll need to reacquire Yinsen first. Good question."

Coulson catches a glint of Tony from the side of his eye and for a moment he can see the resemblance of him and his father. It takes a bit of effort to keep that from showing on his face.

"How are you going to do that?"

"Yinsen has escaped before and he always makes mistakes. The man doesn't actually have anywhere that he would rather be, so he never stays invisible for too long."

Tony doesn't look convinced.

"He didn't act like that to me. He wanted…" The teen hesitates, looking unsure.

"He said there was something he wanted?" Bruce encourages Tony.

"He just wanted to be with his family or something. I don't know." The teen lowers his head and pretends to be fascinated by a page that just contained graphs and charts that Tony memorized in seconds the first time he looked at them.

"He's mentioned that before." Coulson nods with a closed look.

"Where are they?" Tony sets down the file, looking up at them. "What are they doing? If he helps you with this couldn't you set something up-"

"We've already looked into it." Phil pauses. "They're not...here anymore."

The teen purses his lips and looks down.

"Oh," Tony looks around, hoping for someone to start up the conversation again.

"Okay, so we reacquire Yinsen and set up a meet. Are you planning for Tony to actually be there?" Steve asks Clint, leaning forward in his chair.

"You know what, just..." Tony sighs, handing Steve's file back to him to look at..

The Captain looks through it immediately even as Coulson answers him.

"Yes, unfortunately if we want to assure that Albrecht comes in person."

"I don't like it."

"Join the club."

Thor lifts his head from his copy.

"Why are we joining this club?"

Coulson contemplates banging his head on the table.

* * *

Steve is the last one left in the briefing room long after the meeting between the group had ended.

He pulls his phone out of his pocket and twists it between his fingers back and forth. The black shine catches on a flash of the fluorescent light and the man seems to make up his mind.

The phone flips up with a snap and he presses a SHIELD number, bringing the phone up to his ear.

It rings to the point that Steve considers that she might not even answer him. The unusuality of her not answering her phone wasn't that large as she had a history of ignoring his calls before then calling back about two minutes later.

"Hello." A voice answers that isn't familiar to Captain America. "This is the office of Dr. Stane. How can I help you?"

"The office?"

"Yes, the office of Olivia Stane. How can I help you." The young male voice answers him.

"Okay, hello then." Steve starts. "Will you please tell Olivia that I know she doesn't have anyone answer her cellphone for her and that I need to speak with her?"

The voice pauses.

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you."

Steve has to wait for a full minute, listening to some shuffling behind the phone then nothing for a moment.

"Hello." Olivia's voice filters through the speaker. "What can I do for you, Captain Rogers?"

"You're the one pushing through this plan aren't you." Steve doesn't bother to phrase it as a question.

"Which plan?" She feigns innocence.

"Dr. Albrecht. Using a minor as bait along with a super powered criminal who has been acknowledged as being unstable."

"That sounds about as safe as any of your SHIELD sanctioned plots to do whatever you do behind the mantle of the Avengers."

"No, it doesn't."

"Is there a point to your ranting? Are you trying to stop this because I assure you it won't work?" Olivia starts to work herself up.

"No."

The woman pauses.

"Excuse me."

"I'm not trying to stop you." Steve starts. "This needs to end. I understand that more than anyone else. This has been spiraling ever since Stark first got that crazy idea in his head probably back when he and I were in the same bunkers together."

"So, what is the point of this call?"

"It's a reminder."

"A reminder?"

Steve nods on the phone as if she could see him.

"You have to remember what exactly is at stake here. Thirteen years ago, four great people were killed: an entire family, your father. A laptop was taken with a secret on it that could change the world as we know it."

"That is your reminder."

"No. This is my reminder. Today, even more people are at stake and they don't even have anything to do with it, Olivia." Steve pauses, swallowing. "Let's not put another kid in a grave."

Olivia remains quiet on the line.

"I'll keep that in mind." She finally tells him. Olivia doesn't say anything for another beat and Steve almost hangs up. "Captain Rogers, I believe we should have a joint briefing to make sure this plan is as safe as possible between the two of us."

"Thank you."

"Of course. And...Bring Tony. Please. He should be there. We don't want to put him through anything that he isn't completely willing to do."

Steve hesitates, but seems to hear some honesty in her voice.

"Okay."

"Tomorrow then." Olivia says and hangs up the phone without a goodbye.

* * *

Olivia hangs up her cellphone with a flourish, gathering the attention of the few agents walking through the hallway to their own posts.

None of them dare to stare at her too long.

Dr. Stane allows herself to pause in the hallway for just a moment off to one side, letting out a deep breath. She smiles and waves off the one she had answer the phone for her. It definitely started with an "r" whatever his name was.

Olivia waits till she is back in her office before her lips curve back downwards .

"Oh, Captain Rogers." She muses. "We definitely don't want Anthony to keep going without knowing all of the information."

She fingers the knob to her locked draw and considers the file she had placed there.

* * *

 **Next time of Not So Stark, Tony, Oliva's meeting leaves Steve in the cold.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

* * *

 **Review Responses:**

 **Sara Snow- *Cough, cough* What? Tony finding out he's a Stark. That would be ridiculous. *Looks guilty* Enjoy!**

 **Spitfire303- Thank you! Enjoy!**

* * *

"So," Tony slumps against the wall. "Does she usually make you wait this long or is this like a special occasion?"

Steve snorts and looks over to the teen. They both are waiting for the sealed shut door on their side to slide open.

Olivia was taking her time apparently with her current meeting that was running over.

"Actually, she pretty on time mostly. It depends on what she wants from you."

"What does she want from you?" Tony asks him, crossing his arms and squinting at the hallway lights above him.

Steve sighs and shrugs.

"I think she just wants to coordinate with us." He finally gives. "I mean, it would be preferable if she would agree to joining in on our team briefings for once, but we have worked on a lot of missions together." He pauses. "Though, you probably can't tell right now."

"Yeah," Tony draws out. "I definitely haven't noticed any tensions at all."

It won a slight wince from Cap.

"Subtlety hasn't been the Avenger's best quality."

"That makes me feel good." Tony looks over to Cap. "You know about this whole mission thing you're setting up that requires an incredible amount of subtlety and whatnot."

"Have you always been this snarky?"

"Yes. Have you always worn this much red and blue?"

"Most definitely. I think the kids would say that I get my clothes from the...American Eagle."

"That's," Tony stifles a laugh. "That's completely accurate and terrible at the same time. I retract my previous statement."

"Thank you. I appreciate that." Steve feels a bit of satisfaction for actually getting the kid to smile. He looks over as the door slides open finally.

The sound echoes with an air of finality.

Tony stands up from his wall and shifts around in the SHIELD regulation black T-shirt with no identifying marks and logo except the white bird on his shoulder sides.

"Looks like we're up." Steve unconsciously checks the shield strapped to his back as he does every once in awhile. "Ready, Tony?" He asks the teen.

"Sure, why not?" Tony shrugs and mutters the next part to no one in general. "Seriously, give me a reason."

A stream of suit cladden individuals leave the room with matching black briefcases. One specifically stops in front of Steve as Tony goes unknowingly ahead.

"Wait one second, Captain." The man informs him. "Dr. Stane requires your presence in the hallway."

Tony immediately regrets slipping ahead as he hears that and turns to back out of the doorway just a step.

"Stay here, Mr. Jones." Olivia makes her appearance and gripes Tony's arm, pulling him back into the room with a lot more strength than he would admit to have expected.

"Olivia, what's going on here?" Steve pushes past the now multiple men trying to keep him away.

"Oh, just a miniscule change of plans really." The door suddenly slides back in place again as she finishes her thought. "You know how it goes."

Olivia turns to Tony and smiles a very creepy smile in Tony's opinion.

"Don't worry, he does know how it goes."

"Um." Tony looks between her and the door, a dishwasher soap sized bubble of panic bubbling up in his throat. "That's just a joke, right?"

Stane looks to what he is referring to and shakes her head.

"No, not in the least. I have a serious matter I need to discuss with you."

"Yeah, well, I've been kidnapped slash almost kidnapped a lot this week so…" Tony lets his sentence drop off, backing away from the woman in front of him.

She frowns, bringing a hand to push a strand of hair behind her ear.

"They've really painted me as a bad guy, haven't they?" She sighs. "Typical."

Olivia motions for Tony to have a seat.

"Join me." She tells him and picks her own seat at the end of the room on a gray couch by a presentation screen. Her heels click against the floor in the comparable silent room. Tony reasons that there must be some kind of sound proofing involved here.

It wasn't a usual kind of room that's for sure.

The room was very large and extended each way with large meeting tables scattered about. There were no windows which gave it a bunker type feeling even with thorough lighting.

"This conversation's going to happen no matter what I want, right?" Tony points to himself, raising his eyebrow.

Yes." Olivia responds after a pause. "But you'll understand soon enough the reasons for it." She tilts her head and leans the chair back. "Aren't you curious to why I've gone to all of this trouble."

"Well, you made it all kind of clear before." Tony says, but walks over with some reluctance anyway. He likes to think he he was still at least choosing to cooperate with her even though he might not actually have much of a choice in any of the situations around here. "And you're asking a lot of questions for not wanting to give any answers." He picks a spot on the couch as far away from Stane as he can. It's not like there's that much more room between them because of it, but it's all he can do.

Olivia looks down with something that seemed akin to guilt.

"You're right." She says, leaving Tony more than a little uncomfortable. "You've been asked a lot of, Anthony, and it's not fair what you've been given back."

"I'm not really expecting much fairness at this point, Dr. Stane."

"Olivia. Call me Olivia." She waves her hand. "You're right, though. I suppose that's not the point. This isn't about fair, but what you're helping us with will bring peace to something that's been spiralling for over a decade. Have you ever heard of my father?"

"Obadiah Stane." Tony says automatically.

"Obadiah Stane." She murmurs. "He died on that same night as the laptop was taken" She pauses, taking a deep, angry breath. "And no one has seen to bother themselves here with telling you, for god knows what reason, how you're just as connected to that key moment as me."

"What are you talking about?" Tony shakes his head, his voice edging very close to dangerous.

"I'm talking about who you really are."

"I know who I really am." Tony tries to defend himself, his chest tight.

"You have no idea." Her voice slows down. "Anthony, you're, you're a Stark."

Tony blinks as what she said is processed in his brain.

"No." Tony tries to almost laugh it off.

"Your father was Howard Stark."

"No, no, no."

"Your mother was Maria Stark."

Tony throws himself up from the cushions, holding his arms to himself.

"Shut up!" He throws his hands up, losing control and Stane pounces up just as quickly not letting him get away from her.

"You have a family, Anthony!"

Tony whirls back to her. He tries to brush a surprise drop of salt water that suddenly dropped down his cheeks before it can make one those annoying, little streaks on his face that he hates with all of his being.

"You're lying!"

Stane freezes and her face goes blank while her arms fall to her side. The fight seems to drain out of her.

"I'm not." She taps the black screen of her watch and a picture of the Stark family appears on the presentation screen behind her.

The three are smiling in the photo.

They're smiling. And Tony can see it. He can see the resemblance and it hits him like the biggest, hardest punch in the face that beat any foster home bully or fellow street rat that he had ever seen. He has even seen that photo before on some stupid documentary.

"After the death of your parents, SHIELD sent you away for what they said was your protection." Olivia starts again as the screen goes dark before reappearing again with a video of a room marked out with yellow type. The camera moves from body to body through three different people. "They still knew about you, though, Anthony. They knew who you were the second you were brought here."

"They would have told me."

"They knew it was you every time you got moved to a different foster home."

"They would have told me." Tony's voice catches this time.

"They knew it was you when you were forced to run away from the system. When you had to do whatever it took just to survive."

"They...They would...Why wouldn't they tell me?" Tony falls to the ground as the scene closes in on a woman's blood splattered face. Her eyes were still open.

"They wouldn't have told because they're not all that they say they are. They may tell you that they care about you, but they just want to complete the mission. It's always the mission and, believe me, when I say I understand that, but I also understand what family means. Especially when it's taken away from you."

The tiles are rough on his hands.

"But…" Tony can't continue. Tears trail down his face and splash onto the white surface.

Olivia kneels down next to the teen and places a hand on his quivering shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Tony." She pulls him so that his forehead was resting on her shoulder as the teen sobbs. "I am so sorry."

Olivia lets the screen power off behind her.

* * *

"Let me into that room." Steve is practically screaming in the man's face. It takes every piece of will power and rationalizing sense in his body to not tear all of these men a new one like they've had before.

"I have no control over this situation." The man doesn't give in an inch. "You'll have to get permission from Dr. Stane as soon as she is available."

"Get permission from Stane?" Steve sputters. "What do you think this is? We already had a deal. I trusted her." His voice raises with each sentence.

"I'm sure there must just be some misunderstanding." The man doesn't even look like he believed what he was saying.

"Were you ordered to keep me back?"

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Were you ordered by Stane to keep me from entering that room so she could do whatever the hell she might be doing to Tony right now?"

"Dr. Stane is not doing anything that she doesn't have the complete authority over in her position as one of the leading consultants of SHIELD. Do you need to be reminded of everything she has accomplished for this organization?"

Steve's face morphs to complete, red disbelief.

"She ordered you to do this." He tells himself. "This was just another sick plan of her's."

"Dr. Stane-"

Steve turns away from the man and bangs his hand against the door again.

"Don't say another word." The hero growls, tearing his flip phone out of his pocket. It practically breaks in his attempts to open it.

The dial tone is like being frozen in ice all over again.

"Capt, what's up?" Clint's voice rings through the speaker and he quickly starts again, not giving Steve any room. "Let me guess, Stane is driving you crazy and you're going to let me come down-"

"She's gone too far this time." Steve stops him.

Clint pauses on the line and when he speaks again, he sounds the cold, dangerous spy that has been engrained into every corner of his soul.

"What did she do?"

"She didn't even let me into the room. She just took Tony and shut the door. I can't get in."

"Break down the door." Hawkeye demands blatantly and Steve can hear him moving in the background.

"I tried." Steve glares at the metal.

"Try harder. I'm on the other side of the building." Clint hangs up the phone.

Captain America pulls his shield from behind his back into his hands.

"Woah, sir, I'm going to have to-"

"Get out of my way." Steve pushes Olivia's agent to the side and brings his shield up in front of him. He backs up to the end of the hallway then shoots himself forward to the door.

The two metals practically spark as they make contact under the force of Steve's blow. The door bends and Steve repeats it again. This time a cracking sound can be heard from the slate of metal.

It doesn't give after the fifth bang and even with the significant dent, Steve takes a different approach. He holds his shield by its end and smashes the side control panel with the shield's edge and prays it might set off the emergency systems to open the door.

The door grinds open after two heartbeats with a sound Steve can't describe as anything other than beautiful relief.

He runs into the room, slinging his shield behind his back with the awareness of how he might look to Tony.

"Stane." He barks then practically falls on his face as he looks to the side to the other two occupants of the room. "Tony?" He murmurs to the teen sobbing next to Olivia on the ground.

Tony looks up to him with eyes that are masked by a layer of angry liquid.

"Get away from me." Tony growls and turns away from Steve. Olivia doesn't move her gaze away from the speechless man as just a ghost of a smile appears on her face.

* * *

 **Next time of Not So Stark, Tony, Tony makes a split second decision that he may regret.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Brittanygreenway22- Thanks and a new chapter is added every Monday or Tuesday.**

 **Sarah-Lynne- Teenage Tony is just the best, though I do wish I could add more about his tech know-how. There should be much more tech stuff soon. Oh, and I'd be worried about what exactly Tony could get sucked into too with everything going on.**

* * *

"What, what happened?" Steve steps forward, ignoring Tony's demand for him to get away from him.

Apparently, he's just great at ignoring things. Tony feels the red marks being left by his knees digging into the hard floor like some distant echo far away from the black he had been sucked into.

"I believe he requested you to step away." Stane pulls herself up slowly from the floor. She puts a hand down gently on Tony's shoulder and motions for him to get up also.

He does so wordlessly, both with his body and in his mind.

He had parents...They didn't throw him away...

They might have even wanted him.

"Tony, what did she say to you?" Steve attempts to direct the question toward Tony now.

What did she say to him?

"What did she say to me?" Tony repeats him emotionlessly.

"Tony,-"

"You can address me from now on Captain Rogers when it comes to the Tony." Stane tells him and Tony realizes for a moment that he would usually take offense to this.

He should probably be taking offence to this.

How could they not have told him about his family? They knew.

"For now, though, I think you should leave." Stane finishes.

"Are you kidding me?" Steve sputters. "After whatever you've done now?"

"Whatever she's done now!" Tony whirls around. His face is red, he forced it into some sort of unnatural composure. "What about you? You lied to me!" The teen takes a deep, ragged breath. "You lied to me so much."

Steve stops in his tracks.

"What?"

"Who am I?" Tony asks him. Olivia seems more than fine to let Steve talk to Tony to be yelled at.

"Excuse me?"

"Who am I? Where did I come from? Who were my parents?"

Tony just wants to hear him say it. He just wants Steve to tell him the truth.

"I, I don't know." Steve looks taken aback. "Why? What's bringing this about?"

Tony barks out a bitter laugh.

"I know the truth, okay."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I don't get, though?" Tony crosses his arms around himself and paces over the the wall, closer to the television screen where he locks his eyes onto again. "Why? Was it just too much of a bother to you? A little inconvenient. I mean, you just want me to do whatever it is that will catch your bad guy."

"Whatever makes him a hero." Olivia adds quietly.

"Yes, yes." Tony nods, pointing to Olivia. "And I'm just a no name kid with...with no parents to speak of so what good would it have done you anyway."

"Please," Steve stops him with evident desperation. "Just please tell me what's wrong."

Olivia snorts lightly, shaking her head.

"Tony is the biological son of Maria and Howard Stark."

"What?" Steve whispers at the same time as a figure comes whirling through the still open doorway. The figure slows to a halt, stopping just a foot from running straight into Steve.

"Don't play stupid. It doesn't suit you." Olivia goes on, not bothering to stop for Clint.

Clint takes in the entire room in a split second.

"What did you just say?" Clint looks over to Olivia.

"What? Are you upset I insulted your little team mate?"

"Before that."

The super spy tries to get closer to Tony, but the teen holds up his arm as a clear signal to stay away.

"I'm sorry, did you forget to put in your hearing aids this morning, Agent Barton?" Olivia places a hand on her hip. "Meet Tony Stark. Or at least acknowledge him for once."

Clint gives a hard stare at Tony then pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, boy." He murmurs. "You were planning this out, Olivia."

"Wait a second. Wait a second." Steve stops all of them. "This is, this is getting out of hand. Anthony Stark is dead. He died that night along with Maria and Howard."

"Stop kidding yourself, Steve. You've been in the presence of a younger Howard Stark. You know exactly what he looked like and how similar that is to Tony." Stane starts. "You're not a complete moron. He shares the same name as the boy, for goodness sake."

"Anthony Stark is dead."

"Well, you guys are the people who killed me apparently." Tony shouts then looks down.

"SHIELD would never have-"

"Capt, just...Wait a second." Hawkeye interrupts him.

"Oh, so are you finally going to admit to your wrong doing now?" Stane raises her eyebrows. "This would be a first."

"I'm not admitting to anything." Clint start, tearing his gaze away from the Tony, the boy who had just now found a situation where he was at a lose to how he was supposed to pretend to be something else when he didn't even know what it was he was. "It's just that it wouldn't have been unprecedented for a witness to go into protection that deep."

"Protection that deep." Tony snaps out of it. "You don't know how many times bigger kids beat me up just because they could or how many crappy foster parents got drunk and forgot about me if I was lucky. But you know what," He shakes his head to get rid of the memories as if it were that easy. "I'm over that, so that's not the problem."

"We didn't know who you were." Steve begs Tony to see it.

"Well, did you think you knew who I was?"

A pulse of silence fills the room.

"I think that tells you everything you need to know, Tony." Stane breaks the small spurt of silence.

"No," Steve starts, trying to defend himself. "Howard Stark was a very close friend of mine. I see him in a lot of places."

Tony turns around, pushing back his hair and sucking in a breath.

He saw Howard Stark in a lot of places? How old did he think Tony was?

"I can't believe this." Tony groans. "Was it all of you? Did you all have suspicions?" He covers the word suspicions with sarcasm and switches his stare to Clint.

The archer takes a long moment before breaking and nods.

"We can't speak for everyone, though." Clint finally says.

"Oh, I can." Olivia turns around to the screen and brushes the tip of her index finger against her watch. The screen flickers to life.

 _"You know what would be really interesting?" A picture of the Avengers fills the screen and the video begins with Clint. "If this kid doesn't know a thing about what we're looking for."_

"Olivia, stop this." Steve orders her. The order that is not followed. "This conversation will not prove anything."

"Let's let some others be a judge of that." She tells him and the video continues on.

 _"I wouldn't call that interesting." Steve answers and shifts from one foot to another._

" _Or realistic. I haven't come across many coincidences in our work." Widow also says her eyes staring at something out of the camera screen._

 _"There aren't any coincidences with this case." Steve tells them._

 _Clint looks toward Steve and consequently the security camera.._

 _"No coincidences?"_

 _Bruce speaks up from his spot in the corner._

" _Well, there are more than 1,162,299 Anthonys in the United States alone." He shrugs his shoulders when everyone but Natasha looks his way._

Tony winces, shaking his head.

" _I researched it."_

" _I'm surprised this topic hasn't already come up." Natasha tells the men._

The screen is turned off by Olivia.

"Wasn't that an interesting conversation." She starts. "Now, why was it that you were talking about coincidences and then Dr. Banner mentions the amount of Anthonys in the United States? That just seems like an interesting coincidence in itself."

"You can stop, Stane." Clint tells her.

"Just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should. As soon as I figured out Anthony's identity, I told him. I could have not, but I wasn't interested in an easy way out." She spits back at him and turns toward Tony. "We're done here."

Tony wasn't aware that there was a 'we.'

"Um,"

"Tony, I assure you that I'll have your primary care transferred to me immediately." She walks over to one of the nearby tables and straightens a chair, picking up some files from the table. "You'll have to give an advocation, of course, to help things along, but I already have enough push around here to get things done."

"You can't do that, Olivia." Steve glances over to Tony for a split second. "You'll never get permission to oversee his protection."

"I'm not looking for permission to oversee his protection."

"What are you looking for?"

Olivia tilts her head and doesn't answer.

"Bigger things. Tony," She hands him a file. "This is what I was able to gather on your parents on such short notice. I met them quite a few times, your father especially, so I should be able to answer some of the questions you'll have."

Tony hesitates before taking the file out of her hand with a shaky hand.

"So…" Tony's mind hones in on the file, but he can't seem to make himself open the file yet. "You knew them?"

"Tony, Olivia is using you." Steve rushes to stop what was happening in front of his eyes.

"Steve." Clint stops him from going further. He, at least, knew that trying to slander her name wasn't the best way to go about this.

Olivia just continues on like they weren't there.

"My father had me come to many of his business meetings to prepare me for the family business. Our parents were quite close." Olivia nods.

Stane watches Tony clutch the file to his chest then turns and walks past Steve. She looks back when she notices that Tony has not yet started to join her.

"Are you coming, Tony? There's so much I want to tell you." Olivia says. "About your parents."

Both Clint and Steve try to find some better offer for Tony. Something to stop him from falling into Stane's web. The way Tony holds that file tells them that there might not be anything good enough. It wasn't like Steve knew any recent version of Howard. It wouldn't be what Tony wanted yet.

Tony looks down to the file in his hand and up to Stane.

He just wants to ignore the two men in the room. They were worse than any of the foster parents he's had over the years. At least, the foster parents didn't pretend to actually care.

The only thing he wanted at this point was answers.

There was only one person who had given him answers here.

* * *

Tony grasps the edge of the picture in his fingertips. It was the only picture in the entire file and it was the only picture he has of his family. His family…

The dead ones.

He tears around the staple to pull it out from the other papers.

"Tony," Olivia pokes her head around the doorway. "What would you think about a change of scenery?"

Tony looks up blearily.

"What?"

He looks around the side office she had let him sit in. It was basic with a desk in the center of the room that Tony was sitting on top of with his legs crossed. The room was set right off of Stane's office with the only entrance and exit through her.

"It might be good for you to get out of this place."

"Why?"

Tony hears a pause in the shuffling Olivia was doing in the filing cabinet of her office, right by their shared doorway.

A moment later she enters into the side office fully.

"Well," She puts one hand in another in front of her. "This place does not offer the same safety standards it did before and you'll have to be transported to wherever this mission takes anyway, so that's not a problem."

"Those don't really sound like real reasons to me." Tony murmurs.

Olivia sighs and sits down on the edge of the desk next to him.

"I'm also a bit homesick being all the way out here. It's a selfish reason, I know, but I think you'll like it where we're going."

"Where is it that you consider home?"

"New York."

Tony nods.

"The Stark Tower?"

"Yes, best view in the city. And quite a few layers of protection around it."

"How can you even take me anywhere, though? Safe or not."

"Well, there's a lot of complicated issues involved in it, but since we know who you really are, I have some leverage in custody now." Olivia starts. "Obadiah was listed in your parent's will as the one who's care you would go into if something ever happened to them. I'm trying to use that to make a custody for you to be legally transferred into my care."

"What?"

"You're a Stark, Tony. You can't just be released ever again into just anyone's care. You have a legacy to grow into now and I fully plan to be a part of that. I want to file to adopt you permanently."

Tony accidently creases the photo in his palm at her words.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, Tony has to go through the difficulty of deciding who it really is that he trusts in a universe of people who have all been trained to lie and he better do it quickly as the teleporter who will kick off the final mission of Project Beta is being searched for under the full power of SHIELD.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Spitfire303- Thanks, she's an interesting one to write for. Her attitude really changes with what her motives are for the person she's talking to.**

 **Sara Snow- He's getting some hints. I don't think Olivia will be able to keep it up forever.**

 **Jodyowl11- Thank you! Enjoy!**

 **Brittanygreenway22- Thanks!**

* * *

Tony holds his head in his palms with his elbows resting on the granite surface beneath them. He had sat down on the stool beside the kitchen island as soon as Olivia rushed him into the room. She had him moved almost immediately after getting clearance through whatever means she took.

Tony laughs a brittle chuckle in his mind. What had even happened yesterday?

His world had been turned upside. That's what had happened.

The name on the top of this tower was his. He had a name now and it was a heck of a lot better than Jones. At least, he thinks it was.

Tony glances over to Stane who was trying to appear like she had experience in the kitchen. She looks through each cabinet with critical eyes.

"What would you like, Tony?" She starts and apparently gives up on the cabinets, moving to the stainless steel refrigerator. "Usually, we'll have a full kitchen staff, but they're all morons and I don't think I could stand…" She trails off as if forgetting her young guest. "Well, I just didn't want you to feel uncomfortable. People tend to be quite nosey. You'll see, I'm sure."

Tony looks up to her as if hearing her for the first time.

"Um, okay." He tries to push aside her initial and sudden burst of spite. "I don't want anything, though. I'm not exactly hungry."

"That's what you said this morning." Stane crinkles her nose in disapproval. "You need to eat. I know at least that about taking care of a teenager."

Tony feels a twinge of anger in his numb chest.

"How would you know that?"

It wasn't like she was anywhere near him this morning. She just seems to show up when it's convenient to her and what she wants.

Just like everyone else.

Great.

She looks up to him, not expecting that response.

"I'm having help keep an eye on you, of course." She reaches inside of the fridge for a stack of leftover containers. "Shawarma? Not usually my taste but it could be interesting."

Tony shrugs his shoulders without commitment as Olivia moves to spoon out big portions onto two glass plates.

She puts it in the microwave that starts up silently.

Tony would have rather had it be just a regular appliance like his own old one even though he had made a few adjustments to it on a slow Tuesday. This place was too quiet.

Olivia turns away from the microwave to stare back at Tony.

"So," She says brightly. "What now?"

"I don't know." Tony says after a long beat. He was being honest.

"Don't you have questions? About, well, anything?"

II reminded Tony painfully of the not to far past.

Tony had already wasted a question before.

"Why are you doing this?" He asks her bluntly. He looks up to her eyes that were an even darker shade of brown than his own. Her eyebrows furrow just the slightest.

The microwave dings behind her.

"That's a complicated question, Tony." She looks down for split second to the white counters that seemed to fascinate them both. "Like I said, you're a Stark and I'm a Stane. Our fathers relied on each other as business partners."

"So it's about business. I mean, what do you want from me with that? What are you expecting me to-"

"Tony, don't worry about that yet. There's still a lot to figure out with just SHIELD." Olivia tilts her head in consideration after a moment. "You shouldn't have to be put into the barrel at this point."

"At this point. Who says I want any of this?"

"Do you not?"

"What?" Tony is caught off guard and Stane raises her eyebrows.

"Do you not want this? The tower. The life. It's your legacy and it comes with quite a few added bonuses. I'm right to assume it's an improvement from your past, correct?"

"I don't know. Is it an improvement?"

Olivia sighs and turns around to the microwave.

* * *

"This isn't exactly the best location for our main security positions." Widow looks over the rails of the building edge down to the street far below. It was still active even after the sun had gone down. Their building was located directly across from Stark Tower.

"She won't even let us into the building." Steve is practically tearing his hair out. "She. Won't. Even. Let. Us. Into. The. Building."

"Would you like to repeat that again?" Clint looks through the eye of his scope again to where he could keep an eye on Tony and Stane. Their place at the top of the skyscraper gave them a clear view into the windows of the neighboring tower.

Steve crosses his arms and paces more.

"No." He shakes his head. "I just want to understand who she thinks she is."

"Olivia Stane." Widow says blandly.

"Well, that's not exactly good enough, is it? She lies and lies and manipulates a fifteen year old kid with his dead parents and she won't even let us explain to him that we...we…"

"What were we doing?" Bruce pushes up his glasses from where he is leaning against the rails of the edge of the building.

Steve looks down.

"Making mistakes and hurting people."

"That is not the Avenger's way." Thor declares with much less enthusiasm than usual, following the somber tone. "I do not know much of what's been going on here, but we need to rectify this immediately."

Steve nods silently.

"Well, we just need to figure out how to do that with Stane over there pulling all of Tony's strings." Widow tells them. She glances around the circle of people around her.

"I wouldn't be so sure about her pulling too many strings." Clint fiddles for something in his pocket then holds out another, smaller scope for Widow to look through.

Widow takes it in her hand and points it over to the building. She looks through t for just a moment before putting it down.

"So Tony doesn't look too happy anymore." She finally concludes.

"Maybe Stanes initial advantage of surprise is wearing off." Bruce sighs, pinching the tip of his nose. 'Though I'm not quite sure if being told something as humongous as your true parentage would ever exactly wear off."

"It was the perfect play on her part. Tony's just a kid. He never had a chance after being bombarded like you described." Natasha comments, her eyes are trained on the people in the other building.

Steve shakes his head.

"No, Tony may just be a teenage, but he's smart. Extremely smart. I don't think Olivia Stane can rely on any tactic for too long."

"Even the promises of information of his parents."

"I could tell him about Howard." Steve mutters, pushing back at his blond hair. "But, yes, I can see how that would be convincing." The supersoldier paces back and forth then looks away from the other Avengers. "I just, I just don't want to see anything bad happen to this kid. Anything more than what he's already gone through."

"No one here wants that." Clint puts down the scope and deflates slightly. "The kid's cool and we're going to fix the mess we dragged him into."

"Okay." Steve stops pacing.

"And to be fair Dr. Albrecht kind of started it first. And even before that it was Howard who created the laptop with Project beta on it. Though I guess trying to create some crazy energy source thing to-"

"Clint," Widow holds up her hand and shares Steve's disapproving look. "We probably shouldn't be trying to assign blame to a dead man."

"I know, I know. Don't kick them while they're down." Clint says without his usual gusto. A beeping noise suddenly starts up somewhere on him and he produces a small phone from the same pocket that held his extra scope.

Clint glances down at the message before looking up to the group with a grim expression.

"We'd better move up our timetable on whatever needs to be done." He starts, moving to pack up his equipment. "They've located Yinsen and Widow and I are being sent in to retrieve him. You guys keep up protection on Tony."

Somewhere on the street below a car honks its horn at the slow moving traffic of New York on a Friday night.

* * *

 **Hours later...**

"Target is within sight." An anonymously moving agent speaks knowing fully that it would be picked up in his earpiece and transmitted to his fellow mission agent. "On southeast corner of street. Requesting permission to Retrieve."

Clint looks down both ends of the street packed with people walking up and down the various market stands. Indian dialects floated through the hot afternoon air.

"Area clear. Permission granted when ready." An unknown mission analyst gives him a go.

" _Wait._ " Natasha's voice filters into Clint's ear and he barely turns his head to keep Widow in his sights through his sunglasses. She shifts in her seat at one of the open air restaurant fronts that were dotted through the city.

He changes his stare to where Natasha was keeping her eye and saw the darkly tanned child approaching Yinsen.

"Who's that?" He says softly.

" _No idea._ "

The young, five year old child goes up to Yinsen for only a second and they exchange a few words. Yinsen points her down the street, giving her a few dollars, and she leaves him almost immediately.

"False alarm. She's leaving." Clint tells Natasha and he begins to move into the flow of people toward the target of the operation.

" _Don't scare him, Clint._ "

"What are you talking about?" Clint tries to sound disarming. "I'm a completely friendly person."

He casually brushes his fingers against the tranquilizer gun under the belt of his jeans.

" _And he's a teleporter who could bolt at any given moment._ " Widow chastises him and picks herself up from her table. " _Be careful._ " She adds.

"He's been caught four times before." Clint murmurs, stopping just a few feet away from Yinsen and looking over a chart filled with bright yellow and orange fruits.

He pulls his sunglasses off his face and tucks them away.

" _Mahodaya,_ " A child's voice comes from Widow's end of the line and Clint resists the urge to turn around. " _Vahaan par us aadamee ko vah jaanata hai ki tum kaun ho, tumhen pata hai ki vah apane veg ke saath prabhaavit hai aur , um, chaahata hai._ "

Clint edges across the different sellers, ignoring their demands of attention to get behind Yinsen.

The teleporter is staring intently at Natasha and the girl, a small smile forming on his lips. Natasha bends down to speak back to the child.

" _Dhanyavaad. Ham puraane dost hain. vaastav mein, hamaare any mitron mein se ek ke baare mein use hailo kahane ke lie hai_.

Clint pulls the tranquilizer from his waistband and gets right behind the man. Yinsen doesn't stand a chance before the agent shoots a dart directly into his neck.

"Man, that works every time." Clint grunts as he catches the man on his shoulder and half drags him back away from the crowd.

"Why do I always have to be the one letting them think they've made me," Natasha grins over to him. "While you get to sneak up behind them, though?"

Clint does his best to shrug over to her as he makes his way out of sight.

* * *

"Howard locked himself up in his lab for hours." Olivia runs her fingers over of the various tools on the workbench. "It drove my father crazy."

"Really?" Tony picks up a cube shaped device from a small, metal pedestal.

"Yeah, I doubt you would have seen much of your father even if he hadn't-" She stops herself and shakes her head. "You understand what I mean."

The teen picks up a small screwdriver from beside the stand and holds up the cube, studying it.

"I'm under the impression that you're good with these types of things." Olivia says then raises her eyebrows as the cube lights up after a few small tweaks from Tony and his screwdriver.

Tony shrugs and sets the device back on the table.

"I guess so."

"We could use this type of talent in Stark Industries when it's time." Stane smiles and is about to go on when her phone rings. She pulls out the sleek rectangle and holds it up to her ear. "Olivia Stane." She looks over to the side of the room. "Yes." Olivia nods. "Good."

She ends the call and looks back to Tony.

"They have the teleporter."

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, the mission to finally bring the tragedy of project Beta is begun.**

 **Translations (Found from Google Translator):**

" **Mahodaya, Vahaan par us aadamee ko vah jaanata hai ki tum kaun ho, tumhen pata hai ki vah apane veg ke saath prabhaavit hai aur , um, chaahata hai."**

 **Ma'am, that man over there wants you to know that he is impressed with your speed and he, um, knows who you are."**

" **Dhanyavaad. Ham puraane dost hain. vaastav mein, hamaare any mitron mein se ek ke baare mein use hailo kahane ke lie hai."**

 **Thank you. We're old friends. In fact, one of our other friends is about to say hello to him.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

* * *

 **I know I'm cutting it close, but the update is still on a Tuesday so I'm happy.**

* * *

 **Review Responses:**

 **Sparky199- Join the club. I feel like I'm confused about Olivia too and I'm the one writing the story. Enjoy the suspense, though!**

 **Sara Snow- Yep, one more step closer to Abrecht and the laptop.**

 **Jodyowl11- ;)**

 **Autumnsfire1- I know. Tony's had a hard time and he'll have more hard times ahead of him. I don't think a lot of the people hurting him mean to, though. Enjoy!**

 **Brittanygreenway22- Thank you so much!**

* * *

Tony stands in the room Olivia had brought and promptly left him to.

It's probably the largest bedroom Tony had ever been in or seen anywhere in his entire life. The walls are dark and what Tony assumes is a bathroom door and closet door decorate the far wall.

"Wow." Tony murmurs to himself without much emotion.

He ignores the two intimidatingly plush side chairs surrounding a flat screen and instead walks directly over to the king bed. The teen topples on top of the covers and stares up to the ceiling.

The window curtains are shut to his side and Tony regrets not opening them to let in at least a little more light to the cold atmosphere.

They had found Yinsen. Crazy, old Yinsen.

Tony doesn't want to even make himself go through the implications of this again. The implications of anything again.

Is he really going to go through with this?

They say he just has to stand there like a good, little piece of bait until the guys they were looking for, the doctor and whoever else, came and showed themselves. He could probably do that. Tony wasn't exactly the best at staying silent in stressful situations, but whatever.

He just isn't certain if it will be the ending to this whole ordeal that he has been looking for since the first moment he caught sight of that limo.

The thing is, he doesn't have a choice in this. Any of this.

Tony's pretty sure he screwed up in letting Stane bring him here to this tower where he doesn't feel like he has a place. He doesn't know yet if staying would have been any better.

So he doesn't have any choice or any control or any energy left to do anything but stand around and be a good, little piece of bait.

 _Maybe he should be giving these people more credit._ The thought rockets through him like a bolt of lightning. It's a nice reprieve from the numbness that had settled in his chess minutes after learning that Howard and Marie Stark were his parents.

He still can't believe that.

Howard and Marie Stark.

That's why people think he knows about this laptop. He had been there and seen his father use the laptop. He probably had seen the passcode at one point or another. Thirteen years ago.

Just great, Tony thinks and grinds his teeth.

If he didn't even remember his parents, then how was he supposed to remember a who knows how many digit long password. What would be in that laptop, though? Stark was working on all kinds of crazy tech supposedly.

They probably won't tell him even if they do get the laptop unlocked.

But if makes himself into a true Stark legacy line, he would have a right to it. Wouldn't he? The way to do that would be through Stane.

Tony looks around at the luxurious room.

He might have a right to a lot of things. The teen frowns and tries to not think about the trashy rooms he's had to share in the past at foster homes and the one back alley apartment he got for himself by stealing. Not that they could prove that.

He hadn't been happy at any of those places, but he wasn't sure if he would be happy in this room either and he just couldn't figure out why.

Tony closes his eyes and lets himself think for the first time in more than twenty-four hours. He doesn't know when exactly he will have the chance again. If ever.

* * *

"Hello Yinsen." Clint crosses his arms and smiles a toothy smile to the man standing behind the containment cell glowing walls. "Do you want to be called Yinsen?"

"You already hit me from behind with help from the female agent. You can call me whatever you want, but Yinsen is fine."

"Good." The Avenger nods.

"Why are you talking to me?" Yinsen looks up to the other man with curiosity clear in his eyes. "Company does not come down here with me often."

"Do you want the long answer or short answer?"

"I have time." The teleporter holds out his empty hands to his bare cell.

Clint shrugs and leans his shoulder against the energy wall, seeming to mull over what exactly he was going to tell the man.

"Yeah, I guess you do. SHIELD lost something very dangerous a long time ago and we need to get it back." Clint pauses. "Well, I guess this isn't very long for a long answer, but-"

"You need a teleporter." Yinsen interrupts him, tilting his head. "That is not very like this organization."

"We don't need a teleporter, per say." Clint shakes his head. "We need you, Yinsen. Now, I think you're a pretty stand up guy overall minus the murderous rampage though those were some pretty nasty terrorists and I want to give you an opportunity to do some good."

"This item SHIELD lost. It is the infamous laptop?" Yinsen shifts from one foot to another and seems to admire the sealed corners of his cage."

"I'm not at liberty to discuss details."

"The boy will be involved?"

Clint's face freezes for an almost imperceivable amount of time before he snaps back to his previous indifference. Clearly, something had struck a nerve in the archer.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss details."

"Fine. I'll do it." Yinsen decides quickly, thoughts fleeting through his mind. "Whatever it may entail."

Clint stares at Yinsen for a moment more with questions hidden in his eyes that he knows are completely inappropriate for the spy in him to ask at this point.

It was even easy. Very easy. Clint had come in here with full permission and intentions of having to strike a deal with the man.

But...he had just gotten exactly what he had came for. All they needed was for Yinsen to agree to basic cooperation and there were people that weren't Clint who were making a device similar to Yinsen's cage to make sure he couldn't teleport to escape. Hawkeye and the rest of the Avengers would be monitoring him the entire time to make sure he wouldn't be able to try any double crossing.

His job is to keep assets comfortable and willing and he had done it. He wasn't the one who was supposed to worry about whatever Yinsen might be planning. The spy in him is about to turn on his heels and leave too...when another part of him wriggles his way to the front of his mind.

No one just cooperates this easily.

"You and the boy will be completely protected the entire operation." Clint starts and stresses the word 'protected' in a slightly unusual manner. "No one will be able to get in or out of the target location without us knowing and allowing it. No one will be able to snatch anything or one." Clint laughs sharply. "I just feel bad for those guys since they feel like they could get away with something around us without having Hulk go green on them again."

"I have no plans to double cross you, Hawkeye."

"What?" Clint doesn't bother sounding defensive or surprised. "I meant no such thing. You'll be briefed very, very soon."

What? Clint wasn't just going to just leave without giving Yinsen a good idea of just how little funny business the Avengers were going to be allowing suring this.

* * *

Tony is still collapsed on the bed when he hears a knock from the door.

He's surprised that Olivia came back so soon. She seemed kind of distracted when she first left him and something tells Tony that she doesn't tend to spend much time away from work.

Tony pulls himself up from the bed and sighs, starting the trek to the door.

He's practically there when the knocking starts again.

"I'm coming." Tony grumbles at the obnoxious noise. "Geez."

Tony is still grumbling as he opens the door to find a surprising and familiar face waiting for him on the other side with his hand halfway in the air.

"Hello." Coulson says brightly, walking pst Tony and into his room without invitation from the teen. "Nice place Stane set you up in. Although, I guess it's kind of your's anyway." He adds as an afterthought.

Tony briefly considers getting angry at this guy to, but he doesn't feel like getting together the energy to do so. It wasn't like he really had met Agent Coulson that much anyway.

"I guess." Tony doesn't bother looking around the room again. "So, is this like a social call or something? Tea party? I could probably find some finger sandwiches somewhere in this place. There's pretty much everything else."

"Haha. Very cute, kid." Coulson smirks, turning back to Tony and away from window and crossing his arms. "Would you like to discuss grownup matters now?"

"Eh, fine." Tony says noncommittally.

"Great." Coulson starts all business and moves to open the window curtains and let in the New York City night lights. "To get started, Yinsen has been recaptured by Agent Barton and Romanoff. I was just informed that he has agreed to contribute in the operation." Phil looks to see for a reaction from Tony. "You don't seem surprised."

"Dr. Stane told me about him."

"Of course, she knows that." Coulson sighs. "Because she knows everything about SHIELD despite refusing to become anything more than a consultant. That's a good example for others to follow."

"Maybe having people willing to actually tell you important and relevant information wouldn't be such a bad thing. Maybe."

Coulson winces and continues on with the same speed as before, ignoring the teen's comment for the moment.

"Teams are working now to acquire a suitable location for the deal to take place. We're looking for something that is, of course, secluded from other people, but with a sturdy building that is at least partially abandoned in a sketchy area to give credibility to this being an extremely blackmarket affair."

"Sounds fun."

"We've worked with worse." The Agent tells Tony. "Anyway, that should be dealt with within the hour and then it's just a matter of pulling together some security teams and-"

"Aren't you guys going like really quickly with this?"

"You should see some of the deadlines we've had in the past. Aliens, Asgardians, none of them tend to give us much warning. This is practically a leisurely walk-"

"Aliens?" Tony raises his eyebrows.

"-And keeping the major planning of an operation like this within twelve hours means that there's a lot less likely of a chance for the word to get out to people we don't want to know."

"Like Dr. Albrecht."

"Him among others, I suppose." Coulson says, pausing as his pocket buzzes and he pulls out his phone to look at whatever message had come in. "O'four hundred."

"Four A.M.? Four A.M. what? Isn't that excruciatingly early?"

"Dr. Stane's given the go for us to extract you at four to come back to the Helicarrier.

There Yinsen will 'escape again' and take you with him. He'll poke around the right places with the right information and then Dr. Albrecht will approach him where he'll set up the met at the place of our choice."

Tony quickly forgets about the early rising in his future.

"So there's actually going to be an exchange, right?" Tony asks him, trying to seem calm, collected, and not at all nervous or freaking out. "Dr. Albrecht is going to be there and Yinsen's going to pretend to sell me."

"Well, it won't get as far as that, but Dr. Albrecht has always come personally to all matters to do with this laptop-"

"The laptop I still haven't been truly explained."

"That one exactly. Albrecht is incredibly invested in Project Beta as you saw with him being there for your first kidnapping. Albeit, he expected that to go much quicker so he could either imprison or kill you immediately."

Tony's jaw slackens just a bit.

"That's terribly comforting." The teen sputters slightly. "Terribly."

"You'll be under the full protection of the Avengers. You're under their full protection right now." Coulson waves a hand, trying to reassure the teen in front of him to the best of his ability.

It did not go the way Coulson planned.

"What do you mean right now?" Tony suddenly takes a step toward his previously ignored windows.

"Of course, right now. We wouldn't just let you be taken anywhere, even with the security of the Stark Tower, without the same level of protection that was offered in the helicarrier."

Tony searches the streets and buildings outside of his window even knowing that there was pretty much no chance he would be able to spot the super spy peopl.

"They're watching me." Tony practically laughs. "That's fantastic."

Coulson looks down and crosses his arms, frowning.

"I heard about what happened."

"And." Tony hears the catch in Coulson's voice.

"There's no and. I knew about it also." Coulson starts and Tony's eyes darken. "There were probably a lot of different, better ways to handle that situation."

"Yeah, probably." Tony says bitterly.

"I also believe there are a lot of different, better ways to be handling your reaction to the situation."

"That's helpful." Tony tells him as utterly sarcastic as possible. "Please, describe to me in full detail about all of these different, better options that I need to pursue."

"Tony,-"

"Should I miraculously find the goodness in my heart to forgive everyone in the entire world? Does that seen good to you? Would that satisfy you? Because right now what I really want to do is make sure you think I'm making the decisions that seems right to you, Agent Coulson."

"I know it seems like we're just more adults here to disappoint you, but don't give up on anyone yet." Coulson looks around the room. "Try not to trust anyone too hastily either."

Tony moves his eyes from Coulson's stare with him hitting much too close to the issues he had been mulling over for the past who knows how long.

"Four A.M. Don't have a heart attack when we show up." Coulson remind him one last time then moves to make an exit. He walks slowly as if he were giving Tony a chance to stop him.

Tony has enough to go crazy over without more conversations with adults. They were more trouble than they were worth.

Why would he have a heart attack when they showed up?

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, Tony is swept up into what exactly it's going to mean to go through with this mission and there's no turning back now.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

* * *

 **Review Responses:**

 **Mittyadarsh- Well, I'm not sure is basic electronics is tough competition, but thank you so much anyway. I love to hear about other people who are enjoying the story. Good luck on your semesters!**

 **Toni42- Maybe, maybe, and, yeah, that piece of information is definitely sitting at the front of Steve's mind. Thank you!**

 **Brittanygreenway22- You don't even know how much I wish Tony would know that too. I guess, every character has to have something to work to.**

* * *

Well, it turns out that by coming to pick him up at four in the morning, which was a ridiculous time and in no means necessary, they meant that a bunch of huge agents in all black would sneak into his room at three fifty and scare him to his grave.

The problem was that he had set his alarm for three fifty.

It's not fun to wake up and see sulking figures with just the flashing, green light of an alarm clock.

At least, Coulson was there as a familiar face because Olivia sure hadn't shown up. Though, Tony wasn't exactly happy when the man made him get up and be ready in under five minutes.

Like five minutes would ever do anything.

* * *

"Why don't you just wait and take me directly to wherever it is you're having Yinsen sell me?" Tony asks Coulson, stepping into the elevator.

"You're not being sold and we don't have a clear timeline yet and we have to be careful about moving you from one location to another."

"Oh," Tony shuffle his feet. "I guess me being moved here was kind of an inconvenience."

"Dr. Stane was trying to make a point with this. I don't think anything would have stopped it." Coulson sends Tony a pointed look.

Tony gives him his most unamused facial expression back.

"Back down to floor one." Coulson tells one of the four other agents as the elevator door slides shut leaving him, Tony, and a handful of agents in the small space.

"Aren't we going to the top floor? That's how you brought me here." Tony looks over to Coulson and refers to the helicopter that Stane had bring them back here.

"There's a chance your location switch might have gotten out."

"So?"

"So, I'm not going to take you out the same way you were brought in."

"A car's going to be better?"

"The people in the car will be better if we get off of Stane's property." Coulson replies, crossing his arms as the numbers on the panel got lower and lower.

Tony waits for more information. Any more information. Anything.

Fine.

Whatever.

"Does Stane even have any people here?" Tony thinks back through the many empty hallways he's walked through in the building. "I haven't seen a single other person since I first got to this level."

"Her security's focused more on the digital side, but almost all of the lower levels beneath Olivia's resident floor are packed with people and security. A lot of the security is even starting to filter in now for shift change pretty soon."

"That's why it had to be four in the morning?"

"Yes."

"So, you could have chosen maybe when the other, normal people had to come in for work, but you just decided that this would be more fun?"

"We don't really look like those people."

Tony eyes Coulson's regulation suit and shrugs his shoulders.

"You're close enough. Maybe, a little too cop-ish."

Coulson shoots Tony at glance. He hadn't been called cop-ish before. That was a new one.

"Fine, then, they don't." Coulson motions over to the other agents in the elevator.

"Yeah, I guess it's not usual for white collars to have the time to rip it out at the gym every day for like five hours or something." Tony finally gives. He rolls his shoulders and waits for the elevator ride to be over.

The doors ding open a moment later and Tony gets the see the main entrance of Stark Towers looming off to the side a ways off.

It's a sight that Tony had only looked at from the small, blurry screens of televisions and was impressive even though all of the fancier, light up displays weren't turned on quite yet.

And a sight that he wasn't really going to see now either as Coulson and the other agents veer immediately to the left down an opposite hallway.

The walls turn to just plain white as they get further into the service hallways and away from the general public.

"Okay," Coulson raises his hand to motion for everyone to come to a stop. The agents do so immediately while Tony practically runs into at least two of the guys. "I don't want you," He points to the teen and Tony raises his eyebrows. "To do anything."

"What do you mean anything?"

"I mean anything."

"When does this start?" Tony looks to Coulson with the most innocent expression he can muster. "Should I start holding my breathe now or later?"

"Hilarious, but actually very close to how I need and expect you to act for maybe an hour or two until we get back to somewhere safe where you can do whatever you want to in the shelter of SHIELD's headquarters."

"Look, I know exactly who's going to be in that car with me." Tony puts his hands into the pockets of the hoodie jacket he had found in one of the closets. Yeah, one of the closets as in multiple closets.

Tony wasn't an idiot. Who else could possible be the 'better people' after finding out he was being spied on by a certain group of people.

"You do?" Coulson gives Tony a look.

"Yep and I've got no problem with it whatsoever."

"And you've got no problem with them whatsoever too? There's not going to be any problems there?"

"I didn't say that."

"I thought it was implied."

"I thought your face was implied." Tony crosses his arms.

"Great." Coulson sighs and stares at Tony hard for just a moment. He has to eventually give in and wave his hand to gesture everyone to start moving again. "That's reassuring."

Tony could swear he hears Coulson mutter something in front of him.

"There's not going to be any problems." Tony tries telling him again. "I do have this thing called self control despite what you seem to believe."

"You once knocked the contents of an entire table onto the floor because these same people upset you." Coulson reminds him, picking up speed slightly as Tony feels a breeze that tells him they are near an exit.

"Maybe, I just really didn't like that table."

"How would that be an improvement toward your levels of self control?"

"I think you'd need a philosophical mind to fully comprehend it." Tony says, but then promptly shuts up as a half open door comes into view and the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.

It's not so much the danger of it all.

Or it wasn't until the second after this when it seems every other person in the hallway gets a secret signal to take action except Tony.

The two agents in front of him suddenly back up to be directly in front of Tony, one pulling out a phone and bringing it up to his eye. He says something indiscreet and apparently gets an answer that no one bothers to tell Tony about.

"Is that door supposed to be open?" Tony asks, looking over to Coulson who he finds to not be beside him anymore. He swings around to see the agent moving across the wall to approach the door.

He's holding something against his side in a way that seems suspiciously like a gun.

Tony gulps.

"So, the door's-"

"Please, stay behind us." A nameless agent pushes to keep Tony behind him even as they move forward step by step to the door with two agents also behind the boy.

Tony gets a sliver of a look outside the door to the black SUVs sitting in the outside alley way when a huge figure suddenly fills up the doorway.

"We're all clear out here." Captain America tells them with a somewhat hushed voice. "Let's move out."

His eyes rest on Tony like a question and the teen has no response except to frown and hope the message gets across.

"Pull your hood up, please." One of the two agents behind Tony says in his ear, making Tony jump slightly.

They're everywhere, Tony thinks to himself. Isn't that fantastic for me?

"Sure." Tony answers, pulling up the fabric hood over his head to cover his face as much as possible. "So, this is normal? Right?"

"Absolutely." Steve answers him even though Tony was pretty sure he hadn't been even remotely directing his question toward the Avenger.

"Wasn't talking to you." Tony can't help but murmur to himself.

He might be finally realizing that whole 'self control' issue Coulson was trying to tell him about.

Finding himself in the outside for the first time since this whole thing began, Tony feels cold bubbling of yearning to be able to stay outside for a while longer. He hadn't exactly liked the outside in the past, but the inside was starting to suffocate him.

A wind crashes past them all and makes Tony happy to have the jacket hood up.

"Third car." Steve motions from Coulson to the third SUV in the line of four black, identical SUVs.

Coulson nods then moves back to direct Tony to the car.

The agent looks into the tinted windows and seems to be satisfied by what Tony can only make out as random figures.

"Here we go." Coulson opens the door.

* * *

This car ride is uncomfortable.

This car ride is very, very uncomfortable.

This car ride is extremely uncomfortable.

At least, this is what Tony repeats to himself over and over in whatever new variations he happens to think up in the moment.

He's stuck in a seat right across the aisle from Black Widow who keeps scanning the roads from side to side which makes Tony feel like he should be looking from side to side too, but he can't do that because he's not some crazy super spy who would even know what to look for.

Note to self: Learn what to look for when making sure you're not about to be kidnapped again.

Captain America is sitting in front of him in the front passenger seat and looks like he could really use a more spacious area for all of his super soldierness. At least, that guy wasn't driving considering the only vehicle Tony had ever heard of the man riding was some motorcycle that might be older than the soldier.

There was one other random dude driving.

On the other hand, Captain America trying furtively to talk to Tony isn't the best alternative.

"So...How did you sleep last night?" Steve starts, looking back to Tony for a moment with traces of wariness on his face.

Self control, Tony.

"Fine."

"Are you doing okay?"

"Yep."

"I'm sure you must have some questions."

"Really? Huh." Tony tilts his head. "I was under the impression that you were a pretty unsure guy."

Whoops.

The Captain sighs and looks to the agent who was driving the car as if he could somehow help him out.

* * *

They had only been driving for about fifteen minutes when Steve gets the phone call.

Tony still can't believe that the guy actually still has a real life flip phone in this day and age. Why would they even make SHIELD regulation flip phones?

"Hello?" Steve starts and Tony has to restrain himself from laughing at his ridiculously familiar greeting Captain America uses when answering his phone.

The teen had figured people actually just pressed the green button and started the conversation like in movies.

"How is this possible?" Steve says in a tone that does make Tony very happy and especially doesn't when the Avenger shots Tony a glance after hearing something else from the phone. "Well, okay...Yes...Of course, Director Fury."

Widow raises her eyebrows at the name.

"What's going on?" Natasha scoots forward in her chair with her clasped hands.

"I'm not sure if that is the best idea, though." Steve sends the woman an apologetic and gestures to the phone to have Natasha wait a moment. "I have to tell you that I very much do have a stake in this. There's a teenage kid in the back of this car who I'm not going to let a thing happen to and I think a few other people would agree."

Tony's eyes widen and he keeps his mouth shut for at least this part.

He hadn't seen the Avenger get super intense so quickly like that before and the teen didn't really like that the man was still acting all protective even if he was getting the cold shoulder from Tony.

"You're sure." Steve nods once to himself. "Yes, we do need to alleviate the threat as soon as possible...Of course...Fine."

Steve snaps his phone closed slowly.

"So?" Natasha asks him.

"Fury is having Yinsen being set up for his break out now."

"Why?"

"Wait," Tony raises his hand. "Like now, now? I thought this wasn't going to start until later on today."

"Don't worry, Tony." Steve says, giving Natasha a look that isn't at all worrying. "Director Fury always has his reasons and we can coach you through this now."

"Like now, now?" Tony hadn't realized that Captain America would be a big, visible part of the mission. The guy had kind of disappeared when he went to Stane's.

Tony just barely notices Natasha holding something extremely phone like in her left hand away from him, but he fully sees as Steve obviously gets a text on his own phone.

Unfortunately, he doesn't get to actually see what she had asked Steve.

 _Fury's still worried about the mole? It's been sixteen years._

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, a kidnapping takes place.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Brittanygreenway22- Thank you for enjoying it! I can't exactly tell you any of the answers to your questions, but I can tell you that they're pretty good questions. So, there's that.**

* * *

"Yinsen going to take you basically the same way as before." Natasha starts, turning to the teen from her seat in the car. "He pops in and pops out with you in tow in front of as many witnesses as can plausibly be included."

"Got to keep things plausible." Tony nods, choosing to ignore the teleporting to who knows where, mysterious laptops created by dead fathers with secrets no one seems interested in telling him, and whatever else there might be that fits in this category but hasn't come to mind yet.

"Then, all that's going to happen is Yinsen will take you to a location that was chosen by SHIELD where you'll just have to wait there while Yinsen gets in contact with Hydra."

"I'm just going to wait there?"

He has been doing a lot of waiting.

"Yes, it won't be the best accommodations and you'll have to be locked one of the rooms because at that point we won't be in complete control of who might be able to watch you."

"How locked in a room will I be?"

"Just ordinarily locked." Natasha says, getting an immediate look of confusion from Tony. He hadn't exactly been taught the principles of the levels of being locked up in a room or whatever. Although, maybe he should be getting more familiar than he thinks considering all of his different positions since the very first moments when he was put in the limo.

"The door will be bolted from the outside." Steve clarifies.

Tony doesn't let it show that he hears the answer to his question.

"Yinsen shouldn't be gone for more than a few hours," Natasha starts and Tony has to swallow his throw up of disgust. "He'll make contact and set up the meeting place."

"That location has also been predetermined by SHIELD." Steve adds.

"Then, not too long later he'll take you there, get sights on Dr. Albrecht, and agents along with us acting as Avengers will enter the location and take over everything from there."

The teen lets that information sit in his mind for a moment.

"Shouldn't you guys like teach me some secret symbols or tell me what to do if something goes wrong. This plan sounds too...easy." Tony finally says slowly. The thought of it being summed up so simply just didn't sit right for him. He doesn't like feeling like he was missing something whether or not it is just miniscule details and that overpowers his previous moping.

The agent driving snorts.

"Hey," Steve barks back at him with a disapproving scowl. The Avenger didn't appreciate any agent in their organization being like that to a kid. Especially in this situation. Especially this kid. It ticks him off. "Is there something you want to say to all of us?"

The agent stiffens, obviously not expecting that reaction.

"No, Captain America, sir."

"Okay, then. Let's be respectful."

Steve looks back to Tony and the entire car at this point must have recognized the discomfort radiating off of him because Steve's expression immediately softens.

Tony actually doesn't have anything to say at this point, all of his questions squelched out by the sudden dispute up front.

"It's not that the plan is simple at all." Widow starts again, breaking the split second of silence. "Just imagine that you're a flashdrive or something similar to that. Your only job is to be there. Simply be there."

"Was that you trying to be reassuring? Imagine yourself as an inanimate object being completely controlled by the people around you." Tony says, looking unimpressed.

"It's just for one more day."

Oh great, Tony thinks. It's just for one more...Wait.

"What do you mean one _more_ day?" The teen blanches. He wasn't a flash drive. He hadn't been a flash drive.

Natasha blinks and seems to realize her mistake. She hadn't exactly expected the kid to pick up on that of all things. Or maybe she had.

"That was worded poorly." Widow tells him. "The only thing that is important to know is that flashdrive is what everyone wants to keep alive and well."

"And what if they find out it's just an empty flash drive with no idea what some crazy password is that it might have seen thirteen years ago, but has no memory of now?"

"They don't find that out." The super soldier tells Tony firmly. "At no point will you be in their presence long enough for anyone to discover that. If you are for some reason asked, just remain silent for as long as you can."

"No one's going to be able to hurt you." Natasha repeats herself.

Tony purses his lips.

"I'm not scared."

"Everyone's scared." Steve says lightly. "And it's okay."

* * *

Tony tightens his fingers around the edge of the upholstered seat. The helicopter ride to this point had been loud and quick to a degree that every second that went by was registered in Tony's brain like a tally mark against him.

Throwing up sounds really fun right now.

Well, it doesn't sound fun, but it would probably beat the knots forming in his gut so tight that he doesn't think he could throw up ever again.

He tugs at the headphones as they pull tightly at the edges of his ears. No one has been telling him much since he he been brought into the helicopter. They must have already told him all they were planning on ever telling him.

Tony can deal with that.

Tony can't deal with the fact that that means that no one is talking anymore.

It bothers him to no end as it is much easier to give the silent treatment to people who are talking than to people who aren't talking.

Or at least whatever half silent treatment he had been trying to give them.

"We'll be landing shortly." An unfamiliar voice announces through the headphone speakers like this is just another flight for him.

Which it probably is.

"Remember, Tony." Captain America starts from across from him. "This is going to look and feel convincing."

"Yeah, I know." Tony mutters, looking out the window to the black surface of the landing pad they are approaching. The helicarrier is almost more intimidating before yet not in nearly the same ways.

"Please, be careful. Very, very careful. You may be acting as a flash drive of sorts in this scenario," Steve looks over to Natasha. "But you're not one. If you find yourself in a room with anyone affiliated with anything bad and things look like you need to run, run. If that happens and things look like you need to hide, hide. This is only for your wellbeing."

"Kay."

"Kay?"

"Yep."

Steve looks down, shaking his head and pushing back some of his blonde hair in frustration with a tense hand.

"You've got to give me something, Tony." Steve stops. "I know you don't like me very much right now." He doesn't even bother to let Tony's noticeable frown go. "At all. Okay? At all. But you need to understand that I care. The people that are here," He motions to Widow. "Care. Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Coulson,...Olivia. We care."

Tony swallows as the helicopter touches down on the pad. Suddenly getting out of this metal cage sounded extremely favorable considering the pressure that was crushing everyone inside of it.

Someone pulls open the door and Tony scans the appearingly normal bustling of the top of the helicarrier.

"Why?" Tony murmurs as quietly as he possibly can as he stumbles out of the helicopter with still tired legs.

He has no idea who heard him if anyone. Or if he he wanted them to or not.

* * *

The wind picks up suddenly and unsurprisingly as they are hovering so high up in the air. Tony's open jacket flaps against it, the zipper clanking silently.

Goosebumps skitter down Tony's arm in anticipation.

The evidence of being waited for was obvious. Agents swarm around all three of them immediately in a wave of black, SHIELD regulation shirts and barely concealed slash completely unconcealed weapons.

The teen genius catches a glimpse of another Avenger out of the corner of his eye. Hawkeye is stationed above everyone else on a control tower with what Tony assumes must be a bow and arrow to his side, but is difficult to make out from a distance.

"Just keep looking ahead." Widow is suddenly right behind Tony as she quietly instructs him to ignore the newly formed organized chaos around him.

Tony obviously is forced to look in every other possible direction than in front of him when he hears that. He means, who doesn't have to check out the place where he has just been told not to check out?

"Great job." Natasha sighs, pulling him ahead.

They are almost halfway to the door when the hairs on the back of Tony's neck stand up like they're static charged. It's close enough to being inside to worry Tony that something had gone wrong with the plan.

Should he just keep walking as if nothing was supposed to have happened if they get to the door? Should he slow down and give Yinsen more time?

He could probably shake his shoelace untied if he needed to.

An alarm sounds from inside of the helicarrier doors.

Tony is shaken from his planning as another arm suddenly finds itself around his shoulder that he first assumes is Captain America's. He's not sure which would have surprised him most. The persistence of the super soldier to continually be trying or the split second appearance of the person who had really just teleported himself there.

"Hello, Anthony." Yinsen greets the teen warmly.

Tony doesn't have the time to think up an adequate response to this let alone actually say it as his vision warps.

The air is sucked from his lungs, being pulled by his sudden deposit just a few dozen feet away from where he had been surrounded just moments before. That few dozen feet put them right onto the only empty landing pad left near them.

The one right by the edge of the helicarrier.

Tony curses to himself as he makes the stupid mistake of glancing over the short railing that lined the fall. His feet suddenly feel like they are on far too thin of ice for being more than the comfortable distance of maybe floating five, ten feet at most over a surface. You know, the survivable distances.

Thousands of feet. Erm. No.

"Ready?" Yinsen raises an eyebrow at Tony and practically ignores the shouts of protest coming from every agent. The sudden rain of warning arrows does seem to give the older teleporter a bit of a pause.

"Um," Tony barks a shout at the arrows sticking out of the ground only a yard away from Yinsen's feet. "Yeah."

"Good." Yinsen gives the teen a nod, placing a hand back onto Tony's arm. "I also am. Apparently."

The tight faces of all of the Avengers in sight are the last things Tony sees before he feels himself being whisked away.

* * *

The room Tony finds himself being torn to is hot. It's really, really, stifling hot. The kind of warm that grabs your attention even if you've just been fake kidnapped by a teleporter to be fake sold, even though he wasn't supposed to refer to it like that, to pretty real and terrible people.

"Here we are." Yinsen murmurs, moving over to where the windows must have been boarded over at some point with old, dust covered wood boards. The older man peaks out from a small notch and looks somewhat satisfied with what he sees.

The clay walls don't give away much to Tony with their orange tinting other than wherever they are, it isn't Kansas anymore.

"Are we in a desert?" Tony asks, starting to get at least a little used to the idea that they were no longer on the helicarrier despite knowing this would happen.

Yinsen shrugs.

"That's helpful." Tony mutters. He tries not to look back at the only metal door in the room. It also happens to be the only door he can see from the room with a deadbolt decorating the front like an extra special pin.

Yinsen studies Tony from the corner of his eye.

"I not quite sure you would want to know yet." Yinsen starts. "My teleporting abilities can take me much farther than what I think you are imagining."

"Why does everyone assume that I'm better off not knowing stuff?"

"Probably because you are short."

Tony glares at Yinsen.

"I'm sixteen."

"Oh," Yinsen seems to think that over. "That is probably the reason then. My most sincere apologies." The man moves to the center of the room where a small table was placed with one chair. "You're aware what comes next?"

"I get locked in a room."

Yinsen nods.

"That room?" Tony hesitates then points to the metal door.

Yinsen nods again blankly.

"Right now?" The teen asks.

"SHIELD won't be very happy if I take my time."

Tony puts his hands into his hoodie pockets and blows a puff of air through his lips. He isn't going to enjoy this, is he?

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, things happen.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Nineteen**

 **Yes, I am well aware that this is not the usual update day but I'm going out of town next week and, unfortunately, won't be able to post Monday or Tuesday. Enjoy the early update, though. (Also, how it cool is it that we're on chapter 20 now?!)**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Jodyowl11- You get your wish early!**

* * *

Tony's not sure how much time has passed since he got put in the metal box of boringness and whatnot. It was probably a few hours by now, but there is no way for the teen to know. Or have any idea at all.

There better be breathing holes in this thing. It's hard to tell considering the walls are all reddish stone with no windows and the door is metal.

Actually, he would trade breathing holes for a computer or a TV or anything with buttons and wires. Even a book.

He would trade breathing holes for a book at this point. That is just how desperate Tony is for anything that is not his own thoughts. Those things were real bastards at giving him a break every once in awhile.

...

"I think I hate my father." Tony says to himself.

He means, look at where he is. He's locked in a box because whoever that guy was created a laptop that he let his three year old son see with secret projects that contained who knows what.

It could be like a cure to some really terrible disease.

...

Probably not, Tony sighs. Stark was a computer guy like him.

Maybe, there's information on the computer to end all wars. That would be interesting. Although, he's not particularly sure why Hydra would want that. They could want to destroy it by continuously pounding it on newborn puppies.

Tony's eyes flicker to the locked door.

It's not like those are really the most likely alternatives, though. Tony and every other person in civilization knows the kind of business that takes place in Stark Industry. Bombs. Guns. Missiles. All of the other, more SHIELD style weaponry. That's going to really, really suck. Finding out exactly what it's worth to blow up a family isn't pretty.

It's strange to have to rethink exactly what it means to hate someone.

Tony had always connected it with anger. Deep, quick anger that hit him like a bolt of lightning and was incited by what seemed like the injustices that waited for him behind every corner.

Boy, there were a lot of them.

This is something else. This is like a cold numb in the pit of his lungs that could be very easily confused with sadness if Tony would ever allow himself to feel sadness over something that couldn't have ever been.

Tony has to wonder which hate is worse.

And then there are all of the other people who are still alive and still very much all involved Tony's life in a way no adult had been before. Though, it's not like those people would actually be in the picture after this blew over.

Except Olivia Stane.

She who uses the word adoption like she uses whatever rich people use a lot of. Sparkling water. Board members. Teleprompters. Like he said, whatever.

He's heard that before.

Stane seems strong and blunt in ways Tony figures comes from years and years of getting whatever she wanted because of who she is. That's great for her and way different from any other guardian he had ever been placed in the care of, but something about the women just seemed...he's not even sure how to describe it. Maybe, it was the way she just pulled him into that room and told him what was probably one of the most important things he's ever been told in his life. She then stuck him in another room and left. And, of course, she sent him to another room and left after that.

...

This is why he hates this room.

* * *

"How are we doing?" Steve looks down at the screens inside of the van. He doesn't seem to be able to decide between which video feed to be looking at. "Any movements? Anything unusual going on around the street?"

"You're looking at the same thing as me." Clint replies, not moving his own gaze from the one block in front of him that showed the entrance to a medium sized, smooth stone building.

"I thought they called you Hawkeye for a reason."

"I cannot deny that." Hawkeye shakes his head with an exaggerated sigh.

A small beep is heard within both Clint and Steve's ears from their earpieces that alerts them to someone trying to reach the two from outside the command car.

"Yep." Steve says, pressing down on his earpiece.

"How are things going, boys?" Widow's voice comes in clearly to the two male Avengers. "I'm having trouble keeping a clear view from the rooftops. There's too much activity today."

"I know." Steve frowns. "There's a lot more activity."

* * *

Tony pulls his knees up toward himself. The hard, stone floor isn't exactly comfortable and the only furniture in the small room is nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

There's no chairs. There's no tables. There's no fun little figurines that should be a necessity of all whatever this building is classified as. Which sucks because Tony now has to keep moving between crisscross applesauce, legs stretched out in front of him, and on his knees to stop his feet falling asleep too much.

He's preparing himself for another couple hours of this when something stir outside of the metal door.

Well, it's not that something stirred because it's not exactly easy to tell what's going on outside of a metal door. It's more that a bout of noise comes from the other room that has to at least entail some sort of stirring.

It takes a long second of pushing down panic to let Tony take back some resemblance of rationality. It's just Yinsen, Tony forces himself to accept.

The man is a teleporter.

Of course, he's going to make some noise when he's just popping around. It's not like would be easy to be one place then magically take yourself to another place with no real idea of what's going to be waiting there except for what you knew about it an hour or so ago.

That's not even mentioning the fact that anyone could make a noise like that. He's an older guy. Yinsen probably just banged into that table accidently.

Then, something strange happens.

The long, thick door knob shakes for just a moment. It just shakes like someone is trying to turn it on the other side, but isn't having any luck.

It stops.

It starts again with more force.

Okay, the story in his mind is now that Yinsen teleported a little too far to the left and banged into the table. The man then realized that he forgot his key to the large, metal door that help his fake captive. In a fit of frustration, he still tries to open the door.

Instead of just teleporting into the room to get Tony.

Shoot.

It seems that the logic ends right around there.

There could still be other, better options, Tony thinks. He feels his breath get a little more rapid as something continues to happen outside of his little den.

Yinsen had seemed fine when he felt. Probably. Tony isn't exactly the specialist in the behaviors of other people especially when those people have big, crazy histories that are more than likely as complicated as his.

Tony would need at least a night with some good resources to study from to learn that.

Anyway, it doesn't seem likely to Tony that the teleporter went off and did something crazy. Crazier.

Something could have just gone wrong so some SHIELD agents have come to get him. That's very possible. Now, they're just figuring out how to get the door open so can get Tony out and plan something else.

Something could have just gone wrong so now a thousand HYDRA agents are outside the room ready to come in and eventually kill him painfully.

Tony's interrupted by a dot of fire red appearing at a spot to the top of the lock and ever so slowly moving to the left and down to make a circle around the locking mechanism.

The teen genius can't deny that there's no reason for concern anymore.

He jumps from his sitting position on the ground, throwing himself to the only side of the door that was big enough for him to stand at an angle to not be as openly visible as he was before.

The circle completes itself with Tony's heart pounding in his ear and the lock clanks to the ground like a thousand pound anchor being dropped from an airplane onto a trash truck. The noise seems loud enough to burst Tony's eardrums at least a couple dozen times over and then some.

Swinging open, the door reveals a face that is almost familiar to Tony.

Oh wait.

It's completely familiar.

What is this person doing here?

* * *

 **Hours later…**

Widow leans back from the rooftop railing and sets the small pair of binoculars down from their place over her eyes.

This setting was not nearly as optimal as she had been described just a day ago. People were streaming around everywhere and while this itself isn't particularly difficult, the fact that there is a range of ethnicities and social classes doesn't leave her feeling confident in the area.

It makes it so she has to keep a running observation on everyone.

Steve's still talking on the other side of her earpiece about one thing or another that concerned the mission. It's interesting how the two men could chatter so much even with all of their bickering.

The control room would be even more loud if the other two Avengers had been adequately sized for a van or even a close to the ground rooftop.

The assassin moves her gaze back to the front doorway of her target building. A steady stream of people walk past now and then, each one as usual and casual as the one that came right before.

"How far away is target two?" Natasha asks into her ear.

A bit of shuffling goes on within the van before Clint can answer.

"Yinsen's still in the city looking into the Hydra outlets that have been working underground through there for a while."

"I wouldn't call it much of a city." Natasha tilts her head to peer around the corner of the street as far as she could. "You don't get much more beside a large village in this part of Afghanistan."

"Yeah, well, things are still going to-"

Clint stops abruptly.

"Hello?" Natasha starts, wondering if their mics might have gotten caught off from each other. "You still there?"

A heavy beat of pause follows her question.

"We're still here." Steve voice suddenly comes back on to assure her. "What are you seeing up there?"

Natasha scans the perimeter once again.

"Nothing unusual. Why?"

"Yinsen's dot just disappeared from the city. He's here again." Clint tells her, his voice even sounding dark. "He's back in the building without a word to any of our planned agents and extremely early. Isn't that interesting."

"Are we going in?"

"Let me contact the other ground agents and make sure Yinsen didn't get word to anyone about something." Clint says and clicks away at a view keys on the van terminals.

Natasha hears a curse from one of the men.

"Something's happened. I'm calling the mission. We're going in." Steve says. He's already halfway out of the van with Clint right behind him, his bow drawn.

Natasha runs to the stairs. She takes them three at a time, knowing that she has time to catch up on with the other Avengers being so much closer to the building. At least, that's what she had thought until actually finding herself on the street and with a perfect view of Clint and Steve who are also still on the street.

With Yinsen.

She can hear the yelling.

Now, usually, this would bother her that Steve still doesn't have the right mindset to not make a scene during a mission. This time it seems that it's much too late to screw anything up anymore.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Captain America asks dangerously, his entire face looking like it is about to start twitching.

"All of the rooms are empty." Yinsen looks down. "There was something wrong from the moment I started looking into my old contacts. They were shifty. I came back here immediately."

"That's convenient." Clint starts through clenched teeth. "Show us."

Around one minute later, the three Avengers and teleporter tore through the front doorway of the rented apartment-like room after running down the halls.

The lock on the metal door that had been so carefully picked out before is completely gone and only an empty circle meets them in its place.

The bolted hinges of the side of the door literally creak when Steve tears it open to reveal an empty room to match the empty lock.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, a betrayer and mole is revealed.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twentyone**

 **Brittanygreenway22- Well, I'm happy to say, you're going to get the answers to all of those questions in this chapter. Kind of. You're pretty much getting those answers. Or are you? Just kidding. Or am I?**

 **Jodyowl11- Thanks, my trip was great. I hope your out of countryness is great too. As for the door, just read on. I've got the answer to that in this chapter.**

 **Toni42- It pretty much depends on who you ask.**

* * *

Tony wakes up slowly. Extremely slowly.

And it's cold. The floor that he can feel beneath him and the air pulling into his lungs is all sucking away at him. It's the kind of cold, that while cannot be exactly described as bitter, is familiarly associated with finding yourself left outside in the wind after being asleep over heating vent for the last two hours. Minus the wind.

The air's too still for there to be any wind near him, letting him know that wherever he is is especially the exact opposite of where he wants to be. At least the other room he had been locked in had some air circulation. Knowing that he was supposed to and willing to be there also helped raise his rating of it-

Tony bolts up from the coarse, earthy floor beneath him.

What had just happened?

Where was he?

These are all very important questions that assault Tony with the force of a Hulk slamming into him. He was literally just staring at that metal door, waiting for teleported dude to come back when...Something happened.

Someone happened.

Oh, no, no, no. Tony blinks in the darkness around him that doesn't seem to want to give a hint to the teen of his captivity.

Someone opened that door and...Urg. He just can't remember who or what or anything after looking at the lock and noticing something. Had the lock opened?

That would make sense as something inside of the orphan is telling him, whispering in his ear, that he had known the person on the other side of that door.

Tony reaches to his arm as a sharp twitching burrows its way to the front of his mind. He hisses slightly at a small dot near his elbow that doesn't react well to him scratching at the area and pulling the skin around it.

That could possibly explain the mind blank he's run into and his headache, Tony considers and rubs his head.

The young genius turns his entire body from side to side as he examines the room.

From what he can see, it consists of rounded walls that's jagged edges are just barely noticeable with only a small slit toward the top of a door providing any light from one corner.

There are some kind of objects attached to the walls. They glint a small burst of yellow from the slit and...are extremely similar to chains and manacles.

Tony swallows at the lump in his throat.

The boy backs up from his vulnerable feeling place at the center of the dark pit, feeling at least some comfort at having his back against a physical surface. Though, it did little to settle the chills combing up and down his arms.

He's all alone in here.

And he has no way to get out.

Okay, Tony shakes his head. There's no thinking like that. He couldn't think like that when he was alone before and he can't-

Where had that come from? When he was alone _before_? Man, those people had really gotten to him.

He just needs to get out. Now, how that's going to happen is a very good question. It's going to require him getting up from his nice corner and at least examining the door and it's one slit that could probably tell him a lot.

And he needs to remember.

Tony decides on starting with the easiest of the two tasks. Then after a few seconds of back and forth and which would be considered the easiest, he decides on picking himself up from the hard floor.

He sweeps off the pebbles that were stuck to his hands from the ground.

The sound of his feet against the ground seems to boom across the room and the teen winced with each step. It takes too long to reach the door and even longer to get it together enough to steel himself for the slot in the door.

A part of Toby knows that he probably isn't going to see much but a hallway or something, but another part is slightly less rational.

Tony puts his hand against the thick wood of the door and leans forward to-

"This seems a bit extravagant." A light voice echoes through the hall with disdain.

"Messy but quick. It is how we work." An unfamiliar and foreign voice shrugs. "The doctor does not seem to mind so much."

"I believe you've forgotten that I am also a doctor." The woman sighs, following a noise that sounds very similar to the clicking of a Blackberry.

Tony's breath quickens. He knows her.

The memory of who exactly was standing behind that door as the lock was burned off becomes extremely clear to Tony.

* * *

 _The circle completes itself with Tony's heart pounding in his ear and the lock clanks to the ground like a thousand pound anchor being dropped from an airplane onto a trash truck. The noise seems loud enough to burst Tony's eardrums at least a couple dozen times over and then some._

 _The door swings open and a pair of SHIELD regulation boots greets him instead of the high heels that would usually be found on the CEO in front of Tony._

 _"Dr. Stane?"_

 _Olivia's eyes light up at seeing him, but somehow her frown also seems to grow deeper._

 _"Tony, we need to leave right now." She starts and pockets the stranger laser device under her belt. Her entire outfit consisted of a black uniform that is completely unlike her._

 _"What's going on?" Tony looks around the apartment for what exactly was happening._

 _"I've been betrayed and you need to come with me far away from here."_

 _"What?" Tony's eyes widen as Stane decides to stop waiting and pulls him forward by his arm to the hallway. "Where are the, you know, those other agents and the Avengers?"_

 _Stane laughs with a fair level of bitterness in her voice._

 _"They're going to be more likely to arrest me than listen to me in just a little while."_

 _It doesn't register in Tony's head for a moment just what had been told to him. And when it does, the teen doesn't have the time to thoroughly express his rampant disagree and utter confusion before a sharp prick immediately dulls the sound of a shout right next to him._

 _The strange thing was, that the shout sounds just like Olivia._

* * *

Olivia Stane.

The fear that had held Tony back before suddenly disappears and he peeks out from the edge of the slit to see exactly what was commencing just outside of his newest prison. He does his best to keep his eyes out of view, moving forward.

"I hate these things." The Middle Eastern appearing man complains, examining a phone as he is the one that is actually working around on on Olivia's Blackberry. He finally find the piece that slides out to reveal the battery.

The man holds the battery out in front of him for a second before sliding it into his back pocket.

"You're making a very bad mistake." Stane turns to the man and Tony can see the handcuffs around her wrists for the first time.

"Somehow, I do not believe so."

"I can help you." Olivia says, not bothering to resist the man as he pushes her into the dark room directly across from Tony's. She whirls around before he can slam the door. "The boy in there knows me. He trusts me. I can get you anything."

"We are very capable in our own."

Tony ducks, the man flashing a look in his direction. He holds his breath and waits to see if he was discovered.

After a slight pause outside, he figures he hadn't.

Olivia's door is shut and locked, leaving them both trapped and one of the, still reeling over what was going on.

* * *

"This is all my fault." Steve starts slowly, tearing his hands through his dirty blonde hair. The walls of the helicarrier command room seem to close in closer and closer to the man even though practically half of them are made of glass. "I knew better. I knew better than to send Tony right under the Hydra's nose."

"It's not anyone's fault. The operation was safe." Coulson shakes his head, his eyes showing his own conflicting emotions.

"Much safer than most of our own." Bruce says.

All around their circle, the entire windowed bullpen is a rush of activity. People move in and out of the only entrance as information swarms in from everywhere they can pull information from.

Not that it is doing much good.

All of the prime real estate of resources devoted to tracking down one kid and to Captain America's utter chagrin, it's turned up nothing.

"How did this happen?" Clint looks back and forth between the other Avengers and agents around him.

"As soon as we know exactly what it is that happened," Coulson crosses his arms. "We'll be able to answer how it happened. Right now, though, it's unclear of who exactly would be able to get through the perimeter we had set up around the building." Coulson tells them.

"What about Yinsen? Could he have double crossed us?"

"No." THe SHIELD agent immediately drops the idea. "He's completely accounted for. We were tracking him remotely."

"Then. who was it?" Hawkeye's eyes go cold. "No one would even had known about Tony's location unless they were told."

Coulson looks down and seems to contemplate whether or not to say what he is considering telling them.

"We've been unable to contact Dr. Stane."

The air that had stood so eerily still just a moment before between the ground is suddenly as hard as a block of ice encasing them.

"What does that mean?" Steve's words are tight.

Coulson is stopped from responding as a presence echoes across the room and commands all of its occupants. Director Fury gaze sends everyone back to work quickly.

He stops right at the edge of the group, scanning each of them as if he knows exactly what each of them are thinking.

Fury clears his throat.

"It means that it's time you were given some very sensitive information." He tells them, keeping his eye especially on Steve.

The Director lifts a palm to stop any of them from trying to bombard him with questions to clarify exactly what he means. He instead just gestures behind him and leads the way back into the halls without another word.

Now, the workers of SHIELD have been very acclimated over the past year or so to the comings and goings of the Avengers through the halls. Agents Romanoff and Barton for the far longest amount of time intimidated the other agents with bows and arrows and electric gloves while Captain America and Bruce were new additions with similar if not somewhat more impressive impressions.

Thor was a category of his own.

It isn't as often, though, that they saw certain members of this group of superheroes looking quite as angry, furious even, as now. Not that anyone was able to get a good look. Fury led them down the halls as quickly as possible with the location he had in mind becoming clear after just a few turns.

All roads lead to Stane.

* * *

Raza had been shredding papers for the past forty five minutes.

There were a lot of tasks that the "intern" had been put through in his time working underneath Stane, but this probably has been the one he hates the most.

He should be back at home base by now. Celebrating. Accepting his rightful praise.

Instead, he's here, making Olivia Stane look even guiltier than she already did. It isn't exactly a hard or necessary task with her already going off by herself for some unintelligent reason that is beyond him.

Raza hadn't even bothered to check what papers he is shredding. It doesn't matter at this point. It'll take even SHIELD a good, long time to put any of them back together with the quality of Stane's shredder, so whether it is some coffee receipts or the documents he first had to spy on to find that brat's location makes no difference.

As long as it looks bad, then he's golden.

* * *

"As you all well know, it was no accident that thirteen years ago Hydra was able to discover and steal the Stark Laptop and its contents, Project Beta." Fury doesn't stop his walking pace, but does take a deep breath. The Avengers follow beside him, clearly not enjoying being so left behind in all of this. It seems so far away that this began as a mission to simply recover a laptop.

"There was a leak, a mole." Fury continues. "We never were able to find out who exactly that was, but there was one suspect who stood out above all of the others."

"What?" Steve is suddenly beside the director. He had never been told of any prime suspect toward this or even been given a definite suspect list of who might be the reason for his friend's past murder. "Why were we not told about this?"

"As I've said, it's sensitivity is...high."

"I hope we're past sensitivity at this point." Steve grits out.

Fury frowns.

"That's one way to put it." Clint tries and the director nods in his direction, at least somewhat agreeing with the archer.

"Another way to put it is that Obadiah Stane was that suspect." Fury tells them.

"Stane?" Steve repeats. It does not sound like a question and Fury does not bother to answer it. "Her father was the mole? He died just like Howard and Maria."

"Yes, he did."

"Does that matter, though, knowing Hydra?" Bruce pipes up. His knuckles seem to be both tinted white and green at the same time.

"No, I don't believe it does." Fury responds. "But, anyway, Obadiah had access and he had made some suspicious contacts that he believed we would never find out about."

"Did Olivia know about this?" Natasha asks.

"She knew about our suspicions." Fury starts and continues before any of the others can interrupt him again. "Olivia seemed, for all meanings of the words, to want to prove her father's innocence. That's what all of this has been to her."

"Then, where is she now?" Bruce says, pushing back his glasses as they finally reach the doors to their destination.

"That," Fury stops and presses his hand against the glass panel next to the automated door. It glows green immediately, the door sliding open in turn to reveal an unusually empty office compared to its usual brimming of workers.

A lone figure stands at his desk in front of Olivia's office next to a paper shredder surrounded by huge stacks of documents.

Steve shares a glance with Clint. That was one of Stane's guys? They both remembered him standing outside the elevator just a few days ago. The same elevator ride that's video was used against them by Stane to Tony.

"Is where it gets much more complicated."

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, Tony is forced to go back to a time where he really doesn't want to go.**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-two

* * *

Review Responses:

Toni42- I'm just going to say that things and people can be misleading.

Jodyowl- Well, the author's note may have been a bit premature. Expect that to have more weight in the next chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

They come for Tony when he's halfway asleep.

He definitely hadn't met to be caught in this position but after just sitting against the wall in a dark room for hours upon hours, he could only catch himself from dozing off so many times. It's not like anyone had bothered to look in on him at all since he had woken up.

The awakening is a rough one.

Tony jerks from the coarse wall as the door slams a harsh metal against metal clank. His vision is blurry from restless sleep and it takes him a long moment of blinking to see the three men standing right in front of him.

"Get up." The middle one commands, his tone conveying a thick accent that echoes almost with a layer of boredom.

This is just a dream. A terrible, terrible deranged dream that he should probably get some help to have possibly thought up somewhere back in his brain. Some serious, serious help from a professional who knows what he or she is-

"Get. Up."

Not a dream.

Tony briefly considers what options he has in this situation.

He only is able to consider briefly as it turns out his options are limited to, oh, only about one. No, not about. Definitely one.

Tony does his best not to stare at the guns attached to each of the men's belts as he claws his way back to his feet despite both of his legs seemingly still being sound asleep beneath him. The tingling is a sore distraction to his predicament.

"Okay," Tony holds up his hands as he rights himself just to make sure that his captors know that he is a very anti-shootable target. "I'm getting up. I'm getting up."

The middle man looks over to the man to his left, the man with the biggest gun man, and says something Tony probably could not pronounce yet alone understand.

It's obviously not good, though, as the new guy reaches into his back pocket and brings out something thin and wiry. He holds it out in the light let in through the door, giving Tony a great look at the plastic zip tie.

Tony feels a fair bit of disappointment.

A zip tie?

They might as well start laughing and pointing right now because that seems to be about how much they consider Tony to be a threat. Normally, Tony would want to agree with a bit of respect to them for their insurmountable levels of stupidness in underestimating him. This is not quite a normal situation, though. This is the situation where being underestimating actually leads him to being restrained with one of the few things he probably can't outsmart his way out of without a pocket knife.

He's proven correct with this at the middle man grabs Tony's wrist and holds them both together so the teen can't play the old 'position your wrists as far apart and wide as possible so you can slip the darn things off.'

Tony grits his teeth as the other man grapples the plastic around his wrist, none too gently, and zips it closed tightly.

The three men pull Tony out of the hole they had been keeping him in out into the hallways where he is finally able to get a good look around. The walls are dark and rock. It's easy enough to figure out that wherever they are, it's underground in some sort of manner.

Electric torches light up the way every few yards in what somehow seems like a short yet infinitely long tunnel.

And the floors are damp in a very concerning way.

Unfortunately, there are more concerning things taking place here including such things as the slightly too long fingernails that are digging into his arm.

Tony sucks in a breath as another one of his graceless stumbles leads to his captors coming in even closer around him. It's not enjoyable. He needs space. And air. And to not be zip tied somewhere terrible being taken somewhere probably even more terrible.

His guards, if that's an accurate way to describe them, give no indication as they suddenly veer off to the left, bringing Tony with them.

"So, what's exactly going on here?" Tony says despite feeling like he has to scream over the thudding in his chest.

"Everything." The one with a beard replies instantly.

The teen feels the relief from finally having some sort of conversation rather than his impending doom else to latch onto.

"That must be difficult. Logistically, I mean."

"You have no idea." Beard tells him. Darkly.

Tony wasn't really expecting that response, but, for some reason, it feels almost like a warning for the future. It's probably because as Tony is pulled around one more corner, he comes eye to eye across the room with Dr. Albrecht.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Steve asks, his eyes taking in the piles of paper in a split second. The thoughts that suddenly spill to the front of his brain aren't even the tiniest bit in Olivia Stane's favor.

Not that just the scene before him would suggest to anything else.

Raza Tahir, the name Steve would soon learn, barely even looks up as a famed agent, the Avengers, and the real life director of SHIELD burst into the room. He flips up each piece of paper with almost showmanship as he navigates each to the shredder. The buzzing fills the silent room.

"Mr. Tahir." Fury starts and his voice is not one that can be ignored. "I believe you were asked a question by a superior agent."

Raza looks up innocently.

"Yes?"

"Okay, you know what, where is Olivia Stane?" Steve finally asks, turning to Fury. "That's what this is about, right? Stane's been working behind our backs this whole time."

"What?" The intern looks up with eyes just a little too wide. He stops what he is doing and steps away from the table. "She has? I'm just doing what she asked me to do before she left. Dr. Stane was in one of her moods so I didn't dare go against her."

"Where did she go?" Bruce demands quietly before any of the others had a chance.

"I don't know." The intern shrugs. "Wherever it was, she took one of her private jets to get there."

"Do you have a office?" Fury pulls his hands out of his long jacket's pockets as the intern shakes his head. The director sighs roughly. "Fine. Go to someone else's office on this level. Not to far away. Just wait there."

"Yes, sir." The younger man looks down, hiding his face, and makes his way down the large community workroom until he finds an office an appropriate distance away.

He leaves the others alone in the workspace of the only one they believe might have answers for them.

* * *

Tony clinks his wrists together. Well, he clinks together the metal cuffs around his wrists and tries to pull them slightly closer to him despite the chains that connect them to the center of the table.

"Good luck with that." Dr. Albrecht snorts in all of his glory like this was just another midweek conundrum of his. "There's nothing stronger than metal...when compared to flesh and blood of course."

"That's not correct." Tony grits his teeth.

"I wasn't really asking you. Now, was I?"

"Probably not."

The teen uses the next beat of silence to glance over to the armed guards at the the only door into their cavern. He describes it as a cavern as the walls are just rock carved out into a box that Tony very much hopes has lots of ventilation.

Although, these guys would suffocate first.

There is a single, metal table within the room that takes up a good bit of space with its two chairs as the space is not to wide to begin with. Off to the side, there was another single, smaller rolling table with a single briefcase looking container on top.

Tony is trying to ignore that for now.

"I don't have what you want." Tony finally just says it. He doesn't have any way to get himself out of this. There is no magic answer in front of him. Yet. He's definitely not going to stop looking now.

"And how would you know that?" Albrecht raises his eyebrows at Tony, raising a fair amount of frustration in the teen.

"I have no password, okay?" Tony points to his head. "It's not in here. I've double checked so many times you can practically call my brain Santa's list."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Were you listening to anything I just said?"

The Hydra agent picks himself up from his own chain and strolls over to the one other place in the room Tony was trying to avoid looking at. It bugs Tony to no end how someone could just stroll through a room like that in a situation like this.

"Every word." Albrecht finally murmurs.

Albrecht places both of his hands on the smaller side table for a split second as he needs a moment to just appreciate whatever's in that briefcase before actually seeing it and showing it to Tony himself.

The latches on the case's side snap open easily under his fingers.

"So, do you just not believe me when I say I don't remember?"

"You misunderstand me. I have complete belief in everything that you have told me about your memories."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, I realize that now. It was quite foolish of me to think Fury would set you free without making sure any information he wanted to hide was well pushed down."

Tony can't stop himself. He has to laugh just a little bit at the idea of that despite the handcuffs and the rock walls and the terrifying Hydra whoevers. The laugh might have been spurned more by hysterics than actually humorous feelings.

"I don't think anyone mind probed me when I was three."

"And how would you know?"

Tony blinks.

"Good point." He starts slowly. "But the fact I was three might also have explained something."

"A child's brain is extremely developed at the age of three and with memories as vital as these, I see no reason why you could have no recollection at all unless there was an outside source of the block."

The computer genius tries not to let the Doctor see the questions that he is stirring within the teen's mind.

Tony had run into a thousand dead ends when he tried to find out about his past online. He had never considered that he had run into just as many trying to find out from his memories. A lack of definite memories was just a fact he had accepted and put aside.

"So, have you figured out what I am going to do because of this?" Albrecht pulls from the briefcase a round circle. The sharp glint of light that reflects from the light above him onto it blinds Tony for a split second.

"Give up and cut your losses?"

"It doesn't quite work like that here." The Doctor spins the circle around. It's shape in almost that of a crown with small lines and buttons on the sides to hide the technology that hides within its thin body. "We work with the imperfect." He holds up the device and a twitch of dread strings in Tony. "This here is imperfect. It can only bring its user back to his past memories, no one else. One day maybe someone will correct it completely and use it lacklusterly to impress the next hopeless class of MIT students, as if that could change the world, but for now it will do."

"I kind of think the whole MIT idea seems good." Tony swallows even though his mouth is dry. "That sounds like it's totally worth waiting for without using it for anything else."

"We do not work like that either." Albrecht says. Then smiles.

* * *

"These papers are useless. If any were important, they're already gone." Natasha flips through ten in a row, sparing one or two glances for each. "We'll need to get onto her computers."

"I can get access to everything except her personal files." Fury crosses his arms. "She's had those too encrypted by her specialists to be hacked into without a few hours of work, but I'll have them start on it."

"I can't believe this." Steve digs his hands into his own files. "How could we not have been told about Obadiah Stane."

"It was uncertified and did not necessarily mean to same to Olivia. We had a necessity for much of what she does."

"Well, does it necessarily mean something about Olivia now that she's disappeared to God knows where right when a sixteen year old boy was kidnapped under our noses." Steve is practically shouting at this point."

"Getting angry isn't going to help anyone." Bruce warns the other Avenger.

"Well, what is going to help Tony? What is our plan for finding him?"

The slight pause that follows doesn't last long.

"I have some contacts I can get in touch with." Widow offers. "They might be able to steer us in the right direction at least."

Bruce raises his hand just to shoulder length.

"I can run some numbers with all of the known Hydra bases we have."

"That shouldn't be necessary." Fury seems reluctant toward telling them. "I've wanted to avoid going against Olivia Stane for a long time and for many reasons, but I have my ways of finding her in case of a situation like this."

"How?"

"All agents and consultants need regular physicals performed by a SHIELD medical." Fury tells them plainly, that apparently being where the complete answer lies. "And if we find Olivia Stane, we should-"

"We find Tony." Steve finishes for him.

* * *

Olivia paces her small room. She refuses to sit down at a time like this.

She had been betrayed and humiliated.

Of course, this is completely her fault.

She should have known from the very instant she had even looked at his file that that intern was Hydra. She should always have seen it coming that Hydra would take advantage of the intrigue surrounding her father.

It probably made it only to easy to plant the evidence against her that she had found in her personal files.

SHIELD would have found those soon enough whether or not she tried to hide them.

It's also her fault for being idiotic enough to think she could get Tony out of there herself before the Hydra agents closed in.

This had spun completely out of control.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, the Avengers finally have a location.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty-three**

 **As some of you might notice, Thor has gone missing. Unfortunately, there are unexplainable and unrelated problems on Asgard that need his attention. If Marvel can use this excuse, I'm taking advantage of it also.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Toni42- No, I really started this a while back before Bucky acted with a big part in the Marvel cinematic universe. I didn't know enough about the character to put him into consideration for this story back then, so I don't want to just throw him in now and not do a great job with his impact on the story because of that.**

 **Brittanygreenway22- First of all, thank you. Second of all, Tony is definitely kidnapped. I'm just really letting the story talk for Stane.**

 **\- This is actually a nice coincidence because I was able to update pretty quickly after you posted the review. Thanks and keep enjoying!**

* * *

Tony sucks in a breath as the metal rubs his forehead wrong once again.

"Would it make any difference to you if I said I'm about to barf all over everything in this room?" He asks hopefully, denying his urge to set his eyes looking straight up to the device on his head.

"You're not going to." Albrecht curls his lips. "Barf."

Albrecht lifts the delicate glass pad from the case that Tony can only assume is some sort of remote.

"How confident are you on that?"

"Unanswerably."

Tony takes that as the end of the current dialogue.

He certainly has plenty to think over without a running conversation to lean on. A device that could take it's user back to past memories. Insane.

Possible?

Maybe.

There have been plenty of neural advancements in the past decade alone, but this is a whole different wireless system. What it could mean for the scientific community is incredible, not that Tony believes Hydra seems that likely to share. It's uses would be limitless. Just think about its psychological uses-

This isn't the best time to let his mind roam.

Tony'll just call it...B.A.R.F. and move on. If SHIELD can actually stand for something, then there's got to be some acronym that fits B.A.R.F.

"So, is there going to be a countdown?" Tony drones. He pulls at the chains on his wrist as much as possible without tipping off anyone else in the room. Yep. Those aren't going to budge. "Are we starting on 'one' or 'go' because that can be a problem?"

"Do not worry. We still need you at this point. There is no reason for us to do anything but our best for everyone's personal safety during this experiment."

"Did you just say experiment?"

"Would you feel calmer if I said no?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, that is extremely unfortunate, but no one has the time for this nonsense even more." Abrecht says with disinterest then takes a seat back at the table. He waves off the guards waiting at the door with a wordless flourish of his hand. "Shall we go over exactly what you are going to need to do?"

"I'm a prisoner. I don't have much of a choice in anything that happens around here." Tony says and shakes his chains.

"Perfect, then."

The teen feels his spirits sink a yard more.

"Now, it is usually quite doubtful that someone is able to find themselves exactly in their target memory destination immediately. There is still a bit of erratic neural movements involved in the process, but higher intellects should be able to navigate themselves with much more accuracy." The doctor tilts his head in thought. "Let's hope you have more of your father in you than you might know."

"Now, by memory destination, do you really mean that I'm going to be-"

"Yes, you will hear, see, feel everything that you saw thirteen years ago from your exact point of view."

"What if I didn't see anything?"

Albrecht is stopped from answering as a uniformed man enters the room, looking even more official than any of the other. He's holding something very familiar right out in front of him in his hands.

"You requested this, Dr. Albrecht, sir."

"Place it right there." The Doctor nods to a spot on the edge of his and Tony's shared metal table.

"Yes, sir." The man agrees automatically, the laptop clinking against the other hard surface and the noise rings around the room. "Hail Hydra." He concludes sharply and waits the allotted moment for Albrecht to reply.

"Hail Hydra."

Tony blinks over the fact these people actually did that. He would have started calculating an estimate of the amount of time that was wasted each year with those few seconds after each conversation, but they wouldn't have appreciated it.

"Now, that everything is here," Albrecht begins after the other Hydra agent leaves. "We can finally get started."

Albrecht looks down to the tablet in front of him without bothering to give any other glance toward the teen. It powers up without seeming to pick up an ounce of the hidden panic Tony is having trouble keeping from bubbling up in his chest.

"It will help immensely if you would simply accept and go along with this process. It may seem strange at first."

* * *

"This is taking too long." Clint starts, folding his arms with a stare that would have rivaled his arrows if the door hadn't been shut on him just five minutes ago. "They should have a location by now."

"Maybe, it just takes a minute." Steve tries, though having the least experience with this kind of technology (besides Thor) makes it particularly difficult to come up with solid, specific reasons. "If Fury told us he has a way to locate her, he has a way."

"She could have known about it and gotten whatever tracking chip he has in her out the minute she left the Helicarrier." Clint says then looks to Bruce. "You're the most up to date on SHIELD technologies. Can they detect when a chip has been removed?"

Bruce just shakes his head.

"It depends. Most cloaked trackers will just be able send a last ditch signal if the device has been damaged and I would have to know exactly what was used to be sure of even that."

Steve sighs and looks from one corner of their designated hall to the other, trying not to give another glance to the door they were waiting to open for news.

The doors slide open quickly as if they had sensed that the eyes had been taken off them.

Fury waits behind them.

"As of now we have no way of locating Olivia Stane. Her tracking chip has been completely cloaked from us and unless something changes on her end, we won't be able to find her."

* * *

Tony doesn't realize it has begun until it has begun.

It starts with a tingling feeling behind his eyes. A tingling so insistent and compelling that Tony actually has to pull himself together for a split second to realize everything has gone black beyond him.

He closes his eyes just to be sure that they aren't closed in the first place.

They aren't closed

Well, he doesn't think that they are closed. He's not sure what is going on, being so encircled by nothingness and more nothingness to follow around that. There are noises, though. His thoughts are pinging around him like surround sound.

He's supposed to be doing something…

 _Focus._

 _Focus on where you want to go. It's not necessary, but it helps none the less._

Great. Where Tony wants to go is thousands and thousands of miles away probably over some ocean or another. He doesn't even know where it is they want him to go.

Hey, Tony, just think really hard about that thing you can't remember and haven't ever really remembered and aren't sure if you want to remember anyway. It'll be easy because reasons. That's just-

There's something there.

* * *

Pushing back her hair, Olivia takes stock of her locked chamber once again. She's past feeling sorry for herself and moving on to feeling much more sorry for the people who thought they could stand in her way.

They gave her a plastic spoon.

It came on a pitiful plate of mush that they had delivered ten minutes ago. Unfortunately, it wasn't even the worst thing she's had to eat in her life. Not that the taste matters as all she needs is the thin, slightly bent piece of nondegradable material.

It will do just nicely.

Olivia blinks in the darkness as she runs a hand over her left arm. Her thumb massages the pale skin on her inner elbow until she detects the faintest bump underneath the flesh.

There it is.

She hides a small smile beneath the dark hair hanging wildly over her face.

The tip of the spoon breaks off almost too easily, though the noise sends a tinge of worry through her. It's silly, really. She checked the room six times for listening or watching devices of any kind, coming up with nothing, and there certainly isn't a way anyone just standing outside the room would be able to hear to snapping of plastic.

Olivia holds up the sharp edge to the small streak of light allowed in her room, studying it closely for as long as she dares.

It's a shame that they don't provide disinfectants when they take you prisoner in underground Hydra lairs in Afghanistan.

The woman presses the spoon against her arm just for a moment as a test to clarify to herself that this is her best option of potential escape. The time for trying to complete everything in solitude has gone by at this point, but Olivia will be damned if she isn't a part of her and Tony's own rescue.

God, she hopes that boy is okay.

Albrecht shouldn't have been able to do anything to terrible to Anthony yet. Yet being the key term of her thoughts.

She's going to have to make up for a lot of things in the future.

When Olivia first saw Anthony, he signified the key to finally finding out everything that happened that night. She had spent thirteen years denying to everyone including herself that her father couldn't have done any of the things that were accused against him.

She truly does only want the boy to be able to have a life for himself. One that might be a bit better than his previous. Her offer of taking him in was real. Everything has been real, no matter how terrible that still makes her seem.

Olivia had found out about her Raza Tahir's cross against SHIELD only minutes after the mission had started. It also happened to be at the exact same time that an employee still loyal to her made a call to her, disclosing that some very concerning evidence against her had been found in her servers.

Steve and his gang of monsters weren't going to listen her once they caught hold of even a whiff of wrongdoing on her part. Or maybe they would have if she was attempting to warn them of a leak.

It seems to be too long past now for her to know.

Olivia presses the plastic into her skin as precisely as possible against the lump. Red drops prickle up the the skin until she feels the hard device she has been looking for.

Did Fury really belief she wouldn't know about any tracking device within thirty feet of her person at all times?

It takes a painfully long time to push and prod and slide the tiny bead from underneath her flesh up to the surface. The tracker tugs at the muscles so much that Olivia's tempted to stop the entire process multiple times. Grinding her teeth, Olivia is rewarded by something solid falling to the ground instead of the scarlet liquid. She slides herself up the wall with a push of wind against her and positions her boot at her side.

She lifts up her boot with a fair amount of satisfaction and smashes it down, hearing a very nice click as a reward.

Olivia knows very well that Hydra bases such as this one have many a cloaking devices, but they did not know that SHIELD technologies are much better than anything they have. It's a good explanation to why they feel the need to steal so much of it. SHIELD tracking devices are very similar to that. They have an emergency protocol to send out a last ditch energy burst if they are being damaged to what will be past functioning capabilities. The energy burst itself would end up destroying the tracker after pulsing the signal if it weren't already being damaged.

This should be more than enough to give SHIELD a nice flag of their location.

* * *

Things get darker before they get lighter to Tony.

The darkness seems to have gone on for forever and a day when Tony finally sees a flash at the very edge of his 'vision.'

It's a blue spark that leads to another blue spark that leads to another blue spark that might just be a shade lighter than the last. That might have just been his own imagination, though. Tony follows the spark by taking what he believes to be precarious steps in the darkness but could just as likely have been him moved forward by some invisible force as his feet are entirely invisible to him as probably would be his hands if he were to hold one out in front of him.

A man's voice cuts through the darkness. It sounds dark and older in a way that does not correlate with age.

" **Howard, they're coming."**

 _Howard, they're coming._

 **Howard, they're coming.**

 _Howard, they're coming._

 **Howard, they're coming.**

 _Howard, they're coming._

The words repeat over and over again, each time sending something cold and sharp into Tony's chest. They come from directly behind the teen.

He flings himself around and, as if the motion set off a chain reaction, the air warps to an entirely new everything. Tony has to hold up his hand to block out the new pounding of light in front of him. He's in some sort of workspace or lab.

Tools lay in every open space on the many tables littering the room. The chaos is crazy and comforting all at the same time. It's almost...familiar.

Like reaching out for a lightswitch in a room and just knowing where it is.

"What did you do?"

Tony knows that voice too.

He turns in a motion that feels like swimming through maple syrup and sees the man that has been in easily every textbook Tony had ever been given in school. Howard is standing to the side of the room next to a table that is actually empty except for one article. An laptop. The laptop.

Howard Stark. Tony's entire body seems to freeze up.

And he's with somebody else, someone who Tony can't quite place.

"What did you do, Obadiah?" Stark Senior asks his partner with venom laced in his voice.

* * *

"We're going to have to go done to the ground to go more information." Steve finally reasons, his shoulders high and tense. "They can continue doing whatever they can up here."

"You just want to run into any old Hydra base and, what, scare Albrecht's location out of them?" Clint asks. He doesn't actually seem as against the idea as his sarcasm might make it appear.

"Yes. It's old fashioned, I know."

"We could have really used Thor if we going to attempt to intimidate Hydra agents." Bruce shifts from one foot to another.

He gets a strange stare from Hawkeye.

"Says the Hulk?"

"Wait a second." Natasha holds up her hand. More specifically, she holds up her wrist with it's electronic armband.

"What is it?" Bruce studies her.

"They have a location. And it's still in Afghanistan."

It's amazing how quickly the room rushes to action in the moment after she speaks those words.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, new information is cruel.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty-four**

 **Surprise chapter!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Because of the proximity in time of this chapter to the last chapter I am pushing whatever reviews posted yesterday to next week.**

* * *

"What did you do, Obadiah?"

Tony tries to move, to shout, to scream before realizing it is doing him no good. He's stuck in place, a ghost literally in a machine. Even the movement of his head to the better view of the men in the room did not really seem like his own. Except it did. In an very strange type of way.

"I'm correcting your mistakes." Obadiah's words are as cold as eyes morph in that split second. "Someone has to considering how you seem to only want to take advice from a bottle."

Tony is close enough to see and know that look in someone's eye. The look in Howard's eyes as he glances straight to Tony is unfamiliar, though. It takes the teen a moment to work out that if he is seeing what he had seen as a child, then that child who Howard is looking at.

Three year old him must be in some sort of chair or something.

Tony attention catches on Howard's suit.

He also has seen that exact suit on a picture just days ago.

Just days ago. Oh my God.

Tony's mind races in the realization of exactly where he had been sent back to. This is not where he is supposed to be. Why would Albrecht send him to this exact point? This part is, is…is the only time that Albrecht knows that Tony was definitely in the presence of the laptop. He was in the room.

No. No. No. No. No.

There is no way he's going to watch any of this go down. This is not his life. These are not people he knows.

But they are.

Tony can't help but wonder where exactly Maria Stark is right now.

Run.

You're about to die.

He wants to yell it until his throat can't come up with another word.

"Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?" Obadiah moves his stare up to Howard's slowly. Confidently. Like he had been waiting oh so long to do just this.

"Who are you really?" Howard spits, his eyes darker and more dangerous than Tony had ever seen. They send a chill down the teens spine and it wonders why exactly Howard is just standing there.

Obadiah lifts up the gun that had previously been hidden at his side. That silences Howard immediately.

"You helped give us the atomic bomb. What kind of world will this turn into if you start becoming selfish on us now?"

"This isn't like the others."

"Oh, Howard." Obadiah moves his hand over the black as ink laptop. The device is open and in full view of Tony. "This is your ninth symphony. It's your legacy, a new generation of weapons with this at its heart. Weapons that will steer the world back on course. In the right hands."

"You have no idea what you're talking about." Howard starts then smiles.

That's strange.

"Do you want to know what exactly you've betrayed me for, Obadiah?"

"Don't waste your time trying to delay the inevitable. It's beneath you. My new employers are already coming and they're going to take everything with them when they slam shut the door of this cracking home."

"You fool." Stark almost laughs, hanging his head back as if he couldn't believe his situation. "This," He flings his hands frantically over the laptop keys. 0-4-1-9-4-5.

0-4-1-9-4-5.

Tony actually has the password now. This is really, really bad.

"This is what you just gave up everything for."The laptop flickers for a moment before unlocking and screen after screen take their turn popping to life in an endless circle. Numbers and data assault Tony at a speed he has trouble keeping up with himself. Mostly, because he has no idea what to make of any of it. It makes no sense and not because it is too far over the young genius's head.

"You can't see it now." Stark drags on. "But all of your Hydra snakes will soon be very disappointed in your services."

Obadiah's face goes blank.

"What are you talking about?"

"If I could have made an unlimited energy source, do you not believe I wouldn't be waving it around the entire world?"

"You've been working on this reactor for months."

"I've been working on a lot of things for months."

"Scientists at Stark Labs have seen designs you have given them. SHIELD agents have looked at your research." Obadiah has to hide to slight hesitance of his voice.

"They've only seen what bits and pieces I managed to string together so far. None of them want to admit that they wouldn't even understand it if I did actually create this thing."

Tony has to admit there's some truth to that. Beneath all of the filler equations and random data, some ideas are still clear and interesting to say the least. There was a picture that passed by that almost appeared to be a periodic element. It was unlike anything Tony had ever seen.

"You've been lying this entire time."

"More often than not." Howard laughs and slams the laptop shut.

"Howard." A new voice enters the fray the lab entrance. It's light and a clear warning rings through it.

"Maria," Howard winces. "Leave now." He commands her.

That doesn't stop her for a moment from walking into the room with a purpose, her heels clicking against the tile.

"I was just going to get Tony and go to-" Maria stops as Obadiah raises his gun to view, pointing it directly at her chest.

Tony sucks in a breathe as he sees his mother in person for the first time that he could ever remember.

"I'm extremely sorry about this, Maria." Obadiah pauses.

"Let me just take Tony to another room." Maria asks quickly. "I'll come back. You can go with me and then we can come back to this room together."

"No."

"Please."

"Maria," This time it is Howard warning his wife.

"Howard will do anything you ask of him, Obadiah. I don't know what this is about, but Howard will fix it. I'll fix it if I need to."

Neither Maria or Obadiah notice as Howard's expression turns tighter and tighter with each of Maria's words. A thin layer of sweat has been hiding on his brow.

Obadiah had been banking on the elder Stark not daring to make a move with a gun trailed so closely on his wife's form. Most husbands would have to common sense not to dare such a thing.

Tony could see what Howard is about to do a split second before it happens.

Howard slides his foot back before throwing himself forward. His hands grabble against the larger man's form, but they're either too late to stop the bang erupting from the muzzle of the once cold metal or cause it in the first place by their thoughtless mistakes.

No. A pain tears through Tony as it must be tearing through his mother.

He didn't want to see this.

The blood blossoms up on Maria's pale blouse like a rose just as Tony's own vision becomes tinged on the sides with buzzing gray.

Tony doesn't want to see what happens next either.

Howard somehow gets the gun for himself from Obadiah.

The teen's vision of the events get even worse and some part of him knows that this is him being pulled back to reality.

A shot rings out.

Everything blinks out for a moment before returning.

Howard is on the floor.

Obadiah is on the floor.

Then, there's nothing.

* * *

"I assume that by the look on your face that the machine worked quite well." Albrecht says, tapping his fingers against the table with little patience.

Tony blinks as the voice reminds him that he is back from inside his own mind.

Those were his memories.

Those were his, his somethings.

Those were absolutely terrible.

Tony looks down to the table, still not quite understanding whatever Albrecht might be saying to him. That was the day that changed everything that would ever happen in Tony's life. That was the day where everything went wrong. What was wrong with those people?

"Anthony." Tony finally shoots his head up as Abrecht sharply demands it. "You haven't been paying any attention to me, have you? Did you not enjoy the trip down memory lane?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"I do not very often 'kid' with anyone." Albrecht tells the teen. He waits a moment before standing up from his chair and taking the few steps to place himself behind Tony. The doctor slides the laptop in front of the teen, opening it slowly. "Now, while I'm sure there is plenty of information you would love to spew about insistently, I only want to know one thing. What is the password?"

Tony flinches at the screen with its same box asking for the same password.

"What if I said I still don't know?"

"Then I would respond that you'll just have to be sent back into your conscious until you do. Would you prefer that?"

Tony shrinks at even the thought of that.

"No."

"Then, I believe you only have one choice."

Oh, Tony definitely has more than one choice. The only problem is that they're going to all end the same way. He's probably the only one in the world to know what's really on this laptop.

"Fine." Tony finally grits out.

The teen takes his time positioning his fingers over the keys. It feels much too similar to the way his father and Obadiah Stane had been doing what os just moments ago from his perspective.

He doesn't even know what to do with this new information.

Obadiah Stane. Murderer.

Olivia Stane. Question mark.

He supposed that it doesn't even matter at this point. Tony's head is still spinning. Even from seeing those memories, it really didn't open any floodgates in his brain. Everything was still so blank.

"0-4-1-9-4-5." Tony repeats and presses down each key one at a time.

Albrecht's hand presses into Tony's shoulder as the second ticks by between the teen pressing enter and something happening on the screen.

The laptop pings to signal its unlocking.

The young Stark attempts not to look back as the same information he had just, well, he had seen thirteen years ago as a child. When he had been too young to know what it was. When he was too young to stop anyone from taking something from him.

Albrecht sucks in a breath behind Tony. The older man drags at the laptop as if he thinks it is going to disappear in front of him.

Man, is he in for a disappointment.

There is no way Tony is going to be the one to tell any of these guys that this laptop won't give them isn't going to give them any of the things they've been spending more than a decade looking for.

The doctor doesn't give Tony another glance as he practically skips out of the room in his exuberant glee. He doesn't even bother to give any last words to the boy as the door slams shut behind him. The light seemed like it might have almost flickered with the power of the force that closed it.

Now, Tony's just left to hope that they peek in at what's on that thing before they kill him. Them finding out it's just a drunken man's stalling and pride should at least buy him some time.

And he has one last card to play.

* * *

"If they've done anything to the kid," Clint mutters off without really finishing the sentence. The archer was leaving it to the imagination of those around him to fill in the blank however they please.

His warning does little to feel the silence if the SHIELD jet.

The only other noise is the buzzing of the engines and every once in awhile, a sharp swish of something sharp against something sharper.

"How much longer?" Steve looks over to Bruce and Natasha who are both manning to controls of the plane.

"I would say it's going to take two hours to get to the area." Bruce tells him "Another two or three afterwards to scan the floor for the actual base. The emergency pulse we received only gave us a general location."

"Then, we have to find a way in." Natasha says. It's a not to subtle reminder that this is going to take much longer than any of them want. The barren landscape flashes beneath them through the windows.

"We need to be able to get to Tony before they know we're there." Steve says. "We can't let this escalate to anything more."

Many eyes are pulled to the ground in thought at that.

"So you're not planning to skydive out of here? Shield instead of a parachute?" Hawkeye finally tries, raising his eyebrows.

* * *

 **Three hours later**

Tony has been staring at the same spot on the wall of his cell for a very long time. He figures a couple of hours. It's seems reminiscent of the box he had stared at in the room he was given in the SHIELD heli-thingamabob.

How far has science really developed since when he was a kid?

They'll be busy with the laptop for a while, right?

The teen knows that whoever looked at all of the designs and information in the past didn't have much luck in figuring it all out. He's not to sure of whether they had full access or not to the complete laptop, of course. Stark wouldn't have been that stupid. It could be of help to everything modern day.

The angry face that throws open his door tells him that they have a good idea of what both the father and son had attempted to hide.

"I know what you're going to say." Tony starts, for once feeling like he is getting in a word first with these people. "But that data isn't completely useless. I can build an arc reactor with it for you."

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, Tony's spending money he might not have to buy time.**

Who can tell my what the password is all about? I definitely chose it for a reason and I bet many of you guys can figure it out.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chpter Twenty-five**

* * *

 **You probably noticed that you got two chapters last week. Guess what. You're getting two chapters this week too. Another one is coming out tomorrow.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Toni42- All I knew was that I wanted Project Beta to be the arc reactor. The whole "the laptop is actually useless because Howard is a drunk who doesn't want to admit his own failures" came just about the time that I wrote the chapter.**

 **Jodyowl11- Yeah, I had to kind of rush through that part. I'm trying to get out two chapters a week till the end so it's bumping up all of my writing time. Also, I just couldn't get into that part to begin with. They weren't really doing much since Tony's kidnapping till now.**

 **Brittanygreenway22- Thanks!**

* * *

Steve silently pulls up his hand in a fist until he has the attention of his fellow team members. He catches each of their eyes before looking over the small dirt barrier a few hundred yards from the base entrance they had placed themselves behind.

They had gone through three separate false alarms at suspicious looking buildings as they passed through the area in the air. Each one had panned out to exactly nothing but an extremely time consuming nothing at that. The constant disappointments had led to a thick sheet of frustration over them all.

On the fourth building, they finally saw something with some president. Five different men who had come in and out of the building were all identified through a facial identification program to have Hydra ties out of the few dozen who had facilitated a helicopter landing out front.

The building itself is only a quarter of the way visible with tall orangey walls that blend in with the sand in front. Swallowing the back portion of the structure, is light stone that slowly recedes into the ground and hides whatever else lies below it.

A few small openings decorate the front wall every few hundred feet.

Steve checks the guards making their rounds again. The two men systematically check each door and scan the horizon, sending the team ducking down to their hidey hole once again. The two guns at both of the men's hips are expected yet still send a chill down Steve's back.

The two men turned the corner

They have an opening, Steve concludes as the lookout on top of the building turns to spend the next timed two minutes watching the other side of the desert.

The super soldier points a finger toward the lone door that stood off to the side. He had pegged it as most likely being a delivery entrance used for the hired help, whatever that meant for Hydra.

"Can you cover me, Hawkeye?" Capt asks him.

He doesn't even need to finish the sentence before Clint is pulling back an arrow into his bow.

"I've got your back."

The archer takes his position with the bow lying flat on the rocks that are acting to cover them. He shifts his shoulders to have a complete view of the horizon.

Widow stops Steve before he can continue forward.

"I'll shadow you." Natasha also insists after a moment of contemplation. "We don't know how many guys might be behind that door and we can't risk anyone having the chance to pull an alarm."

"Okay. Let's go." The leader responds. Steve pulls his shield closer to himself and glances one last time to his target entrance.

* * *

Steve feels himself drawn immediately into the calm of being in the field. In the action. In the war path once again.

Although, calm can be a deceiving word. His heartbeat is pounding in his ears. His feet are pounding on the ground. His ears are pounding from the pounding of his heart and feet. It's all too natural and too unnatural at the same time and it sucks the man in every single time.

He stays close to the ground as he and Widow sprint to the building as quietly as they can, dirt flying up softly in their tracks.

It seems that no one inside the compound can hear their heartbeats like they can themselves as they make it to the building without hearing any alarms or seeing any people. Steve presses himself closely to the surface as soon as his fingertips are able to touch the rough walls.

He briefly considers his original plan of smashing the lock with his shield and busting in himself to clear out the area for everyone else, but Widows methods of opening the door with her multitudes of picks seems the better choice. The extra silence would help with the element of surprise.

He and Widow job in going in first had two points.

First, Steve thinks over as Natasha steps back to let the heavy hitter slip in, is to take down whatever Hydra agents might be waiting on the other side of the entrance point. This had to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible. If there were an insurmountable amount of enemies waiting for them, then the two going in first without the others would come into play as Clint and Bruce would be able to make more informed decisions on their part on helping them from the outside.

That doesn't seem to be the case, though, as Steve pulls himself into the building. Light blink harshly above him as his eyes adjust to being away from the desert sun.

The second is to get a beginning idea of the lay of the land.

The door deposits them directly into a large room filled at its edges with boxes and crates of all sizes. A few jeep looking vehicles stood off to the side by themselves along with gas pitchers. What isn't in the room is any people at all.

The super soldier turns around to see Natasha already signaling out to their teammates that the coast is clear enough on the inside for them to come over.

"This is convenient." She mutters, picking up a large chunk of melded metal from on top of a box. The spy frowns at it before setting it down.

"I know. Let's hope it lasts."

"You don't think it's a bad omen?" Natasha asks with a fair amount of real curiosity. Convenience never seems to pan out in their line of work.

"I'll take whatever I can while I still can." Steve shrugs.

They're both left to wait a minute or so more for Clint and Bruce to have an opening to slip in themselves. The time is spent keeping systematic watches on the inside doors and the one door that had brought them in.

This would have been a great mission to have backup on if it weren't so sensitive.

"That was fast."

Clint's voice echoes through the large, caverning room.

"The room was empty. There must be something that's drawing attention somewhere else in the building."

"Did you have to get past a security system?" Bruce looks around the room as if assuring himself that he could keep the green away simply by awareness.

Natasha holds up a long lock pick that he had somehow pulled from somewhere in under a second.

"You won't find anything more sophisticated than a heavy padlock in this area. It would suck up too much electricity from the main power line."

"Hmm," Bruce starts. "That's going to be very unfortunate for them."

"Yes, it will be." Steve nods, not holding back on the small, restrained smile that came up on his face.

"How's Hulk doing? Should we be looking out for any green yet?" Clint peeks over to Bruce. The archer isn't exactly against the idea of a Hulk out at some point if need be. After they find Tony.

"It's all under control." The scientist shakes his head. It should be said that the only color on Bruce's face is his eyes that glow determinedly behind the glass of his black frames. It seems he has been able to pull himself together more since their very first assignments together what feels like so very long before.

Any other conversation halts as a sudden shout echoes from outside of their room. The words are muted and really only one thing can be heard. _P_ ه _ansy._ The voice cuts off as quickly as it started as its creator probably turns a corner away from their hiding spot.

Steve lets out a small breath of relief, but then is met by an extremely dark look on Widow's face.

"What?" Capt almost doesn't want to ask.

Natasha turn away from him to Clint, her shoulders tense.

"Did you hear that?" The spy asks him and Clint pulls another arrow from the holder around his back.

"Yep." Clint coughs, turning to Steve. "Pهansy means execution in Urdu."

* * *

Albrecht laughed in Tony's face. It was a cruel and cold laugh that Tony definitely doesn't appreciate at this point. Although, he can't quite blame the man for being upset as he has been looking for that laptop for an inordinately large amount of time and it isn't exactly everything the doctor has been searching for.

It was also the exact reaction Tony expected really.

How could someone think that a teenager saying he can do what's practically the impossible in energy engineering is a very solid offer no matter what he had seen when he was three?

Tony pulls his knees up to himself and wishes Albrecht would have left some sort of light on in his cell.

The teen almost thought the doctor would have taken the bait.

It was really good bait. Bait that might actually be real. He means, yeah, Tony's not going to just be able to magically come up with anything right away. He'll have to see first what he can recycle from Howard Stark's plan and what he can pull in from his own talents. It would take a pretty darn long time.

Tony doesn't have much of the traditional schooling that would come in handy.

But he still knows his stuff.

If anyone thinks his talents just lay in ripping of ATMs or beating people way over their heads at any battery competitions, then they're very wrong.

He's good at power sources.

He knows how to get around an engineering table.

He could do this.

Well, Tony can't actually do _this_. Not for them at least.

There's no way in hell he would ever put together something so potentially dangerous for any of these psychos. An arc reactor like this is his...family's thing. No one can just take it from him at this point or any point for that matter.

Not unless they pry it from Tony's cold, dead hands.

He's perfectly fine with them thinking they will, though.

Or he would have been fine with them thinking he would have, though. It's not really looking like that plan is going to work out. The teen just wanted to buy himself time and the resources to make his own escape.

He wonders what's going on with Olivia.

She's here too. Her father was back there too. Tony always thought there was something different about her. She was calculating and intelligent in ways that you could see clearly in her eyes. There was a goal in her mind that she would accomplish no matter what. Tony hadn't even considered that that goal could be something evil.

The young genius thinks back to the moment where Olivia seemed to be trying to save him by taking him from the mission house that Yinsen had brought him to. She had said someone betrayed her.

Olivia is either a really good liar or just as screwed as Tony.

Then, there are those other people. The Avengers.

Tony has to admit he was secretly caught up in the awesomeness of first meeting them just a short while back. That wore off quickly.

Now, he has to wonder if they're out there right now looking for him somewhere. Anywhere.

A big part of him thinks so. And it might not just be because he knows they think they need him for the laptop.

They cared in some strange way. Some very strange way.

It was weird.

Tony looks to the door as footsteps sound from outside his cell. It isn't exactly uncommon to hear something outside of the room. He figures he must be somewhere near the main hall, people moving to and fro as much as they have been.

It's not usual to hear the cell across from him opening, though.

He only knows it's happening because the thick door let out a loud clank whenever its lock is turned. The clanks he hears isn't his own but still extremely close.

The exact length of the prison he saw Olivia Stane being put into.

You can imagine Tony's surprise when as he is trying to figure out just what they are doing with Olivia when his own door emits the same clank.

A man stand with the light pouring in behind him, practically shielding his figure.

"Anthony Stark." Albrecht appraises Tony through the darkness.

"Um, yes?"

"I just spent two hours being told how everything I have been trying to accomplish is gone. Completely gone." The doctor starts. Tony already doesn't like where this is going. "It is a very disconcerting feeling to be so thoroughly crushed in all of your hopes."

"I can imagine."

"That's why," He mulls on like Tony hadn't spoken. "I'm going to invest even further amounts of effort into you." Tony's stomach drops. "You will be moved to a secret location in Siberia to continue on with Project Beta along with the help of restricted resources at the beginning. Don't think this any safety to your side. Every bit of pressure that I can spare will be put onto you. Your living arrangements here will seem like a five star hotel in comparison to where you are going to be taken. Your life will end the second I lose even an ounce more of the practically nonexistent faith I hold in you."

"And if I refuse?"

"I'm tempted to kill you right now for saying that."

"Message received."

Albrecht's lips pucker like he is tasting something bitter. He snaps to someone standing before him and four men slide past him into the room. They surround Tony and two pull him to his feet before the teen can really wrap his mind around what exactly is happening.

"Oh, we're going now?" Tony eyes are wide as he looks to Albrecht. This was not part of his plan. He wanted to give SHIELD at least another day to find him. The idea of it just being left to himself to provide his own means of escape...from Siberia now is suddenly looming over him like a wet blanket the size of Russia.

"I'm going to enjoy seeing their faces when they realize..." Albrecht trails off.

"Seeing who's faces? And realizing what?"

Albrecht doesn't answer Tony as he is dragged from his cell. The man also doesn't answer to why Stane is being led herself down the opposite end of the hallway.

Her wild eyes met Tony's for just a moment in time before she is pulled around the corner with her shoes almost squeaking against the floor.

* * *

"So, I guess we are getting information the old fashion way." Clint murmurs as he peaks once again around the corner of the door, waiting for someone else to to be unlucky enough to round the hallway first.

"We're not actually going to hurt anyone. Got it." Steve sends the archer a warning look. "Let's just find out where we need to go."

"Oops. Stand back." Hawkeye starts, verging very closely on the line of having completely lost interest in what Capt was saying. Everyone steps back to his command. Though, a few of them did have their doubts of whether there was an actual reason behind it.

Their doubts are proven wrong.

Clint whips out of the room and a series of only slightly muffled thuds commence in the hallway. Natasha rolls her eyes as he suddenly hauls back in the unfortunate agent to have walked by.

"I found a volunteer for us." Hawkeye says, his hand covering an unfamiliar man's mouth and stopping him from shouting for help or drawing any attention to their location. "He's going to help us track down the kid." Clint motions to Widow and he sits the Hydra agent down on one of the crates. "You're better at Urdu than me."

 **(A/N: So I started out by putting the actual Urdu here, but they just wouldn't format properly with everything else. I would have put the English in at the end anyhow so it's just instead put right here in italics.)**

Natasha nods and turns to the man currently staring at them with wide eyes. He locks his jaw, raising his chin.

 _"You're not shouting. Why?"_ Natasha asks him first. The Hydra man isn't even attempting to make contact with anyone else. _"Is it because there isn't a reason? There are no others left in this section of the compound?"_

The slight twitch of his brow is enough for Natasha.

"What are you asking him?" Bruce stands off to the side, seeming just a bit uncomfortable in the situation.

"We need to know where all of the other agents are. There's no reason for any part of a Hydra building to be this completely abandoned." She answers then focuses back to her target. _"Is it the execution?"_

 _"It will be your execution when you are caught."_ The man can't seem to help but spit out.

 _"I have no interest in hurting you. But you are going to tell me exactly what I want to know. What are they planning to do to the teenage boy that is being held here? I'm sure you have at least heard of him."_

His eyes flash with a burst of confusion that unsettles the female spy. The feeling doesn't sit well with her and brings Natasha to take action that may appear a little more drastic. Her hand slips down suggestively to a dagger at her side that only their temporary captive can see.

Her reputation must precede her as understanding of just who he is up against smashes into him.

 _"The boy...has nothing to do with the execution. It is a woman being killed."_ He finally tells Natasha. It's not especially surprising that a Hydra agent would choose to save his own skin in a circumstance like this.

 _"Who?"_

 _"I'm sure you know her. Everyone does. She is Stane."_

"Did he just say Stane?" Steve interrupts them, having heard the name. Natasha looks down before responding.

"They're executing her."

"What?"

 _"Where is the boy. Sixteen. Brown hair."_ Widow demands and it at least shuts up Steve's sputtering to his own mind.

 _"I don't know."_ He shakes his head, but seems more willing to comply than before. _"Many of the guards have been called away for a prisoner transfer. I would think it would be the boy you are looking for. Him and the woman are the only two people kept here right now."_

Natasha swallows and fights the urge to rub her temple.

"Tony is being moved out of here." She says in English to the other who are waiting with whatever patience they can muster.

Steve lets out a strangled breath while Clint has to physically restrain himself from from lashing out to hit the nearest hard surface. Their plan had only accounted for retrieving one person.

"And at the same time Olivia is being sent to be executed." Steve finishes.

The Avengers look to each other.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, pieces are moving.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

 **I'll upload the next chapter as soon as it is written and it should be before next Monday. Enjoy it all because we're getting so very close to our closing.**

* * *

The room becomes too familiar around them. All of the Avengers feeling like they had risked staying there for too long, but also knew the risks of going any further into the building when they had found a safe room where they could gather information and plan accordingly. It was a miracle that the entire base was so distracted by the impending execution.

Speaking of the execution...

"We have to go after Stane." Steve says, his shield feeling as heavy in his arm as it had ever felt. "If they're going to execute her, we have to go after Stane first."

He can't just let anyone get killed under his watch. No matter the circumstances. No matter the person. No matter the past.

The light flickers above them as Steve tries to make his point while Natasha continues to tie the Hydra agent's hands behind his back and pick out an adequate place to keep him for the time being where he can be found after they have gotten out.

"Tony's being moved out of here." Clint says, shaking his head. There would be much more he would say with that, but time isn't exactly in their favor.

"I know."

"You know?" Clint raises his eyebrows.

"There's no way in hell I'm letting that happen either. There's no way _we're_ letting it happen."

The Hydra prisoner begins to choke on the air around him and it soon becomes apparent he is laughing, snorting even. It's appreciated by exactly no one in the room, but only Widow and slightly Hawkeye can understand his choppy Urdu insults.

" _I don't need to speak English to know you have no chance."_

Clint blows a puff of air through his nose that would have been portrayed as steam in any other universe.

" _You're saying that to us? She's"_ He points to Natasha. " _About to put you in a box."_ Clint strings together more or less, glaring daggers and shutting up the man.

Bigger problems.

And it's not like Hawkeye can even very well argue with Steve on this. He's in complete understanding with the soldier despite how much he wishes for just once he wouldn't be. And it drives him crazy at just what being Avengers means. Great. It wouldn't exactly be as frustrating for any of them this time if it didn't mean how it complicated other people's lives as well.

"So what are you suggesting?" Widow says. She tugs at her gloves to pull them tighter around her hands and gives Steve his chance to talk as their perspective leader.

Captain America does not take that responsibility lightly.

"Okay, here's the plan." Steve starts after a moment's hesitation that is quickly brushed aside. He points over to Natasha and the unhulked Hulk. "Widow and Bruce, you two go after Stane." The Captain holds up his palm to stop what he assumed would be an immediate barrage of questions. "Find her and bring her back to this room. It'll be the rendezvous point. I know you're going to have to fight your way through. I know that means everyone within ten miles of here is going to be very aware of our presence. We can make that a good thing. It'll be my and Clint's distraction while we go to get Tony. Okay?"

…

Everyone is given just a moment to let that sink in.

"Okay." Clint is the first to agree. He is followed quickly by Natasha who just nods her head and looks over to Bruce to see for his consent.

Bruce needs a second more, not taking the risks of unleashing the Hulk lightly in the slightest. This was a mission he had hoped might not have needed the his other side's type of help like every other mission, of course. This one especially in some ways somehow.

"Let's do this." Bruce finally answers, harsh determination in his voice. "We've dealt with two problems at the same time before."

Bruce didn't know it, but he struck a very powerful h in Hawkeye at that moment. It had to be powerful considering the amount of stress that these circumstances just threw onto them. And in very specific ways.

Too specific ways.

"Wait." Clint stops them. He looks to the door then back to his fellow team members slowly. "This is not what we think it is."

* * *

Things really should have added up much sooner than before.

There had only been one, single guard posted to watch over the entire outside of the compound. This could probably be explained by a low staffing rate for this area. Albrecht would have thought himself smart to choose somewhere off the map to keep something so important to him and his organization. But that wasn't the reason.

The first room they had entered into had been completely empty.

This had been explained to them by the man who had so nicely walked past their door. Everyone was away to see the execution.

The execution that led Steve to suggest a plan that separates the Avengers into smaller groups. Groups that would be considerably easier to take down theoretically.

You see, Albrecht is not a stupid man. He knew fully well that SHIELD had a very good chance of finding him and they would send the Avengers. He also knew that there would be nothing he could do to stop them without preparation beforehand.

So, he prepared.

Albrecht had two pawns that he could move in this game. Anthony Stark and Olivia Stane. He needs Anthony Stark. He doesn't need Olivia Stane.

She, then, became the red herring. He would use her to split the team in half, giving him an even higher chance at getting Anthony to the helicopters and onto a more secure location. It would also leave all of the Avengers much more vulnerable to an attack, though Albrecht had his doubts he would actually be able to kill or capture any of them through it.

If the Avengers weren't able to find the base in time, then oh well. Albrecht certainly wouldn't have cried over her blood.

Domino by domino, the pieces fell down in a perfectly straight line. It's easy for anyone to get caught up in something so perfect when everything else is always so imperfect, but these are not ordinary people.

Clint realized, just in the nick of time, the lines were placed too true to actually be true. He realized they were most likely being set up. And he had a few tweaks to their plan that might help for that.

* * *

Natasha stalks through the halls like a cat hunting its prey. Her movements are silent. Her eyes are sharp. And she is being followed by about a hundred and fifty-five pounds of a man with just enough training to ruin her perfect silence and make both of them seem like amateurs in the field.

At least, he is trying. There are plenty of people who are much worse.

The female Avenger pushes a reddish brown lock of hair behind her ear, folding herself around the next corner. She pulls back immediately at seeing two someones walking toward them in the hallway.

Bruce takes a big step back behind her and waits for a signal from her.

He gets it in a shake of Widow's head.

Okay, there's a handable amount of people coming. No Hulk.

The fellow rounding the corner is struck immediately by a zap from Natasha's gloves and goes down easily.

The second puts up more of a fight. And he's pretty good at that. He catches Natasha's first punch and counters with his own toward her right side that just barely misses as she dodges out of the way.

His down bringing is strangely enough the fact that Bruce is standing ten yards away from the two doing absolutely nothing. The Hydra agent expected both of the intruders to be on him on the attack. That did not happen.

There is no way Bruce is ever going to put himself in the middle of a fight Natasha is more than capable to handle when he knows she wants him as far away from it as possible. Well, more specifically she wants the other guy at bay really, but he can be quite sure that he would just be a hindrance if there would ever be a time he could fight without changing.

So, as the Hydra man tilts his head just a dozen millimeters, the woman strikes out quickly.

Widow grabs ahold of his arms before his torso can slam onto the ground and pulls it over to the side of the wall. It takes her almost no time to position him sitting against the wall with his head tilted forward.

It's almost like he had just sat down and fallen asleep all on his own.

Bruce looks down to the two men as he passes with a furrowed eyebrow and badly disguised frown.

"It's a good thing we aren't going for subtle anymore." He murmurs, the air becoming drier and drier around them as they approach even closer to their destination.

Natasha holds out an arm to stop him, a small smirk on her lips.

"We still need to get there first." She tells him and turns her gaze pointedly to the men on the ground.

* * *

"This is going to work, right?" Clint look over to Steve. It's a question that even superheroes have to ask themselves. Need to ask themselves.

The ability to be wrong grows in all of us.

Steve knows this and he knows that the only really answer would be to say he didn't know and no one could really know, but he also knows other things that only come from the experience of living. There's never any good in crushing hope. There's never any good in building doubt.

"We're going to make it work."

"Okay." Clint nods his head. "I should probably get in position." He pulls his quiver tighter around his back, taking slight stock of how many arrows he has left. It's a good number as they haven't run into anyone yet.

The end of the arrows click together as the shift.

"Make sure you aren't seen." Capt says just to fill the space. "Be careful. There's gotta be some other kind of watch posted that we just weren't able to see. Maybe on the perimeter disguised under something."

"Got it."

Clint ignores the now suddenly much more shady appearing eyes of their friend to move back to the door they had first entered through.

His hand rests on the doorknob when he freezes.

"Steve," Clint says without turning around.

"Yeah?"

"Be careful too." Hawkeye repeats. "You wouldn't want to get any dust on that pretty shield of your's."

* * *

The Hulk smashes his fist through the wall like its a piece of paper held up by glue and popsicle sticks. It's unnecessary as his roar just seconds before, cannoning soundwaves and salvia toward the thirty some agents in his path.

Oh wait.

This story is getting ahead of itself. Well, it seems like it is getting ahead of itself. It's not.

You see, in the few moments of Steve and Clint having their conversation in the peace of their own, private room with only crates with them, Natasha and Bruce came across something completely different.

Let's begin again there.

With an almost tripled pace, Natasha manages to navigate the maze of a hallway until they reach the areas where traffic suddenly became much more congested. And with the congestion came the groups of people with their eyes and attention that would have been drawn directly to two ununiformed people prowling through the halls.

That's how Bruce ended up stuck in a black shirt with cuffs just a bit too small and a pair of even darker pants just a bit too short. Natasha does a little better by tucking in the other shirt, rolling in the ends of the trousers just a bit to compensate with their length. Both of the uniforms actually work pretty well considering.

At least, they work well enough in the context of everyone else being so distracted by the pending execution and paying slightly less attention to their surroundings than usual. Though, that could just be a part of the charade set up by Albrecht also.

Not that he seems to have told any of his underlings about his planned deceptions taking from the lack of any facial giveaways in any of the Hydra agents faces who pass them by. Natasha can't make out a single tick in anyone. No one is even checking any of the faces around them beside what's ordinary.

It all changes when Bruce and Natasha come face to face with the very woman who they are trying to find.

Olivia Stane recognizes them quite easily.

Luckily, she is also intelligent enough to refrain from giving away more than just the tiniest twitch of her eyebrow. It's a valid question to Stane whether or not she was actually on the high list to be saved. She probably should have known these idiots would do this when they should be going after the kid.

When Olivia finds herself pushed away from her potential rescuers, she faces one of the most frightening things she's faced so far. And it is not the room that can only be described as absolutely morbid from its back backed wall, chipped by bullets, to its corners, improperly washed and still smelling of iron.

It's the lines of Hydra agents with guns pointed to the Avengers just a second behind her and in turn very much pointed to her also.

Hence, the Hulk.

* * *

Tony hears the gunshots coming from somewhere not too far off in the labyrinth of his prison building at just the time same as his foot crosses the threshold out into the burning sun.

Although, it's not really accurate in saying his foot crossed the threshold as two of the more than dozen guards surrounding him are practically dragging him along by his arms like they can't realize that he is nowhere near as tall as them.

Really? More than a dozen guards just to get him to some truck or plane or whatever they're going to use. Excessive much?

The gunshots sound like they're just inches from his ears even though he knows they're not. The sound makes every fiber of him want to throw up or cry or just close his eyes for one single moment because he can't take anything anymore much less a sun this bright right now.

Why are they using so many bullets on Olivia? There couldn't possibly be a reason for anyone to be this terrible-

The roar is unnaturally unlike anything Tony has ever heard before yet it's easy to know exactly what it's coming from. Who it's coming from.

Tony sucks in a breath that makes his lungs feel like they're about to burst.

"Hey." A man's voice shouts from to their sides and Tony has to struggle to maneuver his feet on the orange sand beneath him to even see the edges of him. And the sight he is met with is awesome. "Let the boy go. Now."

Captain America stands alone in the opposite direction away from them as the helicopters. Maybe two hundred yards.

His shield glints in the light with its star and stripes.

They're here.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark Tony, do you have any idea where everyone is right now and what they're doing? Because I don't. Just kidding. Maybe.**

 **(You can see I take these next chapter previews very seriously.)**


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

 **TheMagicalPixieHorse- Ding, ding, ding. Correct. You've won the contest. Unfortunately, the only prize is satisfaction. Unless you like satisfaction. Then, congratulations. I thought it seemed appropriate because I didn't exactly portray Howard in the best light.**

 **Toni42- Siberia is just a little throwout I did. Bucky's not gonna be anywhere in this story because there's just not any time left for him anymore. And I'm still licking my wounds from Civil War.**

 **Jodyowwl11- Sixteen year old Tony doesn't exactly have the same manpower as older Tony despite the similar sass.**

 **Brittanygreenway22- Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.**

* * *

It's the type of situation where Tony imagines the appropriateness of a tumbleweed blowing across the orange ground between them. Steve standing by himself, ready to face the dozen or so enemies standing before him with bigger guns and the hot sun above him.

This isn't exactly an old western, though.

And why Captain America is choosing to stand there alone without any of the other Avengers, one of which Tony knows is here and can still slightly hear the destruction of, is a mystery to the teen.

"I'll say it one more time." Steve growls. His voice rings across the ground like a bullet from a shotgun. "Let the boy go right now."

"I've been waiting for you." Albrecht stops his men, pushing himself pass them to stand directly in front of Tony like a human barrier. It's stronger than vibranium in some ways that are difficult to explain.

"Cut the bullshit."

"I was hoping for more of you, of course, but they'll be getting here soon enough, I suppose."

"Yes, they will. That's why this is-"

"My last chance?" Albrecht finishes Steve's sentence. He looks over to one of his henchman and snorts. "Is that what you're going to say? Because I've already heard it before. As I've heard everything you might have to say so many times before." The look on Steve's face was enough to know the doctor's guess is all too correct. "It's time for you to cut the bullshit. Not me."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're stalling. Your team has been split apart so you have no other options but to resort to what might be the most idiotic move I could ever have dreamed you to make."

Tony sucks in a breath as the man holding him squeezes his arm tighter than before. There has to be some way that he can help. Any way that he can help. At least, that's what Tony would really like to think. Then, reality sets in.

It doesn't seem like the odds are in Captain America's favor, but the look that comes on his face at somehow seeing Tony's discomfort is enough to at least give more than just Tony a pause of doubt.

"Get him." Albrecht finally sighs with a fair amount of gusto.

The command actually does not affect a single one of the agents surrounding Tony and Albrecht. A fact that has Tony wondering for a long moment of what exactly is going on.

That question is answered quickly.

Five or so different entrances around the compound all seem to shoot open at once and send a stream of Hydra men out of each in numbers that double then triple then quadruple very, very quickly.

It almost seems like a waste of epic manpower when suddenly a figure that Tony has only seen once before in person barrels through a door of his own making. The making being done by just running through it despite the cement and rock it's made out of.

Tony's left to consider who exactly has the advantage in this situation. The Hulk barely even flinches as high tech guns that were probably made just to bring Bruce's counterpart down spray bullets at him. Not for long, though.

"You, you, you, you." Abrecht turns away from the fight and points toward some of his guarding men. "Put the boy in the helicopter."

The sight of the Hulk left even Dr. Albrecht with a ping of doubt.

Or that's how Tony takes it at least.

Albrecht must only want to get in himself when the teen is restrained and they can leave immediately. The doctor doesn't want to be stuck in another small space like the limo again while the Avengers have the advantage of the open around him.

Tony stops dissecting Albrecht's motives the second he feels himself again being pulled away from his chance of rescue.

He glances wildly back to the fight where suddenly Widow is also there with a slightly bruised Dr. Stane, both with taser guns of some sort.

No one is able to concentrate on anything other than their highly outnumbering enemies.

There's not really a hope of Tony being able to resist the men that are three times as old and as strong as him. He's just outside of the helicopter in moments.

This is really his last chance.

Tony struggles against their grip with everything inside of himself that he can possibly muster, the hope that had been so cruelly passed in front of his eyes slipping through his fingers like sharp chips of glass.

A green glint of something catches the corner of his eye.

He's not getting in that helicopter.

It takes just one last, desperate jerk of his arm before Tony whips his hand to the side. No one else is the wiser of the young hostage's target until the eyes widen of man he had just stolen it from.

The Hydra agent barks out a warning that sends all of his compatriots tearing away from the teen like he was about to explode.

Tony ignores the irony of that as he holds out the grenade, his fingers curled around the pin. It takes a great deal of effort to remind himself that the shaking between them originates from the life of his palms not of the grenade.

"Stay back." He shouts, his voice stronger than he ever imagined he could have made it.

"You…" Robert, because Tony's going to call them all whatever he wants to call them at this point, starts with a thick accent, thinking through the rest of the sentence. "Blow us all up."

Tony would have loved to inform Robert that all of the Hydra agents are totally free to move as far back as they want to, but their side glances to big boss Albrecht is a blaring hint to the teen that there are some things they are much more afraid of them than a grenade.

"I don't know how to speak any of whatever language you're speaking. I don't even know what language it is, okay? So, I can't really tell you anything. At all. And I don't really know what it is I would be trying to tell you so-"

"Tony, get down." The voice shouts at Tony from behind him. From inside of the helicopter?

It feels like a spear of molten lava piercing through his skin. The bullet.

Tony couldn't imagine any of the hocus pocus of surprise dulling pain to be true. The feeling in his forearm is ultimately the worst physical thing he's ever experienced.

The second worst thing.

The feeling of his heart _stopping_ as his arm, already dripping red, impulsively pulls back and takes his hand, fingers, and pin with it is just a bit worse.

Four.

Albrecht is smirking with the smoking gun in his hand for just long enough more for Tony to see before a red and blue shield suddenly comes from nowhere to slam him to the ground.

It's very true to say that Albrecht would rather no one have something than for just him to lose it.

Three.

A figure flies past Tony to the grenade on that's practically touching the tips of his sneakers.

Two.

...

One.

* * *

Tony's ears ring.

Not actually.

As the teen opens his eye, hoping that he won't discover a huge hole in his chest, he realizes that the true ringing comes from the vibranium still vibrating from the pieces of shrapnel that had rebounded off of it.

He coughs and Clint curses and rolls off of him.

Captain America's shield is in Hawkeye's hands, but not for long as the Avenger promptly tosses it back to its owner.

"Are you okay?" Clint voice sounds like howling through the shock of it all.

Whoops, Tony thinks as the archer wastes precious moments waiting for a response. He actually does want you to answer that. The logic of conversations was lost on Tony for a few seconds.

"What?" Tony asks back, his hand moving to press against the bleeding on his forearm. He doesn't want to look to see how bad it is, though the pain gives him a good idea that it's not exactly pretty.

"Are you okay?" Clint repeats back. This time he takes matters into his own hands and pats down Tony's jacket to check for any shrapnel holes. It turns out that Captain America's shield along with Clint having used his talent of aim to throw the grenade away from the two at the last moment meant that neither got any new additions of metal in them. "Can I see your arm?"

"Um," Tony looks down to where the blood is welling beneath his tight grip and finally relinquishes it to the man who had just saved his life. "Okay."

His head starts to feel dizzy.

Clint must be noticing as when he looks up to Tony's face, his look of concern is quickly covered by something a little less worry.

"You know, you were kinda supposed to actually get in the helicopter," Clint starts. "So I could knock out those guys and fly us the hell of out of here. I had to wait in there for like twenty minutes with no air conditioning."

Tony can't help but let out a shaky laugh.

"Sorry. I think the people out here might have gotten it worse, though."

"Nah." Clint shakes his head and looks over all of the clearing where the last of the Hydra agents were being plowed down. "Now, let's get us all out of here."

* * *

To say that Steve glares bullets at an unconscious Albrecht as he takes the pair of handcuffs being offered by Clint might be a small understatement. They seem more like missile to Tony, but his point of view is a little flawed at this point so who knows what is really going on.

Tony's shoulders slump from the relief of this being over and he ignores the dust covering him from head to toe because of his position of sitting on the ground.

"All clear." Widow says, finishing her rounds. She walks up to the strange group consisting of the Avengers, Stane, and the teen genius. "We're set to head out now. I've got a SHIELD watch coming over this area pretty soon and they'll definitely have to check out all of...this." She waves a small gesture to the wreckage, once the front of a very terrible place.

"Have them arrest Raza Tahir." Olivia tells them then coughs.

"Raza Tahir? You're intern?" The wheels turn in Bruce's head and his eyes widen. "Of course. That's how Abrecht knew we were coming when we did."

The puzzle pieces coming together seems to help the man get over his last transformation, though Tony has to admit he doesn't really feel the same apprehension over all of that as before.

"Yes, well, just let it be a relief that was not actually me to blame."

"Oh, you're actions don't get to go away that easily." Steve grunts, his gaze never turning to far from Tony at this point. There are rips and dirt stains all over his uniform but, like the other Avengers, he doesn't seem too badly injured.

Capt clenches his fist for a long moment before raising his hand up, fingers outstretched.

"Really?" Olivia looks at the gesture.

"I don't trust your reasoning. That doesn't mean I don't trust where you're coming from. Somewhat."

Stane, realizing that is the best she would ever get, takes his hand and they shake like it's an oath and Steve lets the moment pass quickly before moving up to Tony.

"We have to get out of here." He winces at the sight of the teen's arm. "Tony needs a hospital."

"It's not that bad." Tony tries quite pathetically. It goes unnoticed.

"Sure, kid." Clint snorts. "How about you don't set off a grenade next time and we'll believe you." The archer wrinkles his nose. "You need a shower too."

"Gee, thanks."

"Yeah, come on." Clint pulls up Tony from the ground, taking care to be holding almost all of Tony's weight on him as they both shuffle toward the helicopter. He stops just before they get in. "You know, that grenade actually wasn't the worst plan. Kind of clever almost. Next time just make sure-"

"Clint." Widow barks at him.

"What? I'm trying to teach the kid."

Tony's laughing despite everything as the helicopter takes off with all of its occupants.

* * *

 **Next time on Not So Stark, Tony, it's time to sort through the last of it.**

 **Yes, the next chapter is the LAST chapter of this story. It's taken a long, long time for things to finally be coming to their conclusion and I just want to thank everyone who's been along for the ride.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter Twenty-Eight**

* * *

 **Review Responses:**

 **Toni42- In some ways, I think Tony kind of did get the Arc Reactor. Thanks for reading.**

 **Brittanygreenway22- Thank you. Iron Man is one of my favorites too, but I'm always switching from one to another.**

 **Jodyowl11- Man, I try to proof read everything, but there's always something that I miss no matter what I do. Thanks for reading!**

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 **Man, it's really, really weird to be saying this, but this is the last chapter. I hope you guys all get everything you want from this story.**

* * *

"What happens now?" Tony asks and tugs at the sticky tips of the bandage around his arm, trying not to have to look any of the adults in the eye. "Are you going to turn me back into foster care. I don't exactly have anything to offer."

The teen had told them in minimal detail about the hollow laptop and it was hard to miss the look disappointment on Steve's face. Or maybe it was something else.

"It's not about that and I don't believe it would be such a good idea putting Anthony Stark out into any system." Coulson attempts to sound as light as the bulbs of the hospital lights above them.

"I'm actually going to, you know, use that name now?"

He hadn't failed to notice the name on his chart is still printed Anthony Jones in dark ink. It's sitting so blatantly on the edge of his bed, waiting to be checked over one last time by the nurse who has gone to ask a doctor about Tony's antibiotics.

Tony drags his heel against the floor as he is dangling his legs over the side.

Somehow, five chairs had been fit across the side of the private room which were now all occupied. Tony suspects it was Coulson.

"Of course." Steve raises his eyebrows. "If you want to."

"I mean, I guess it sounds better than Jones."

"And it doesn't mean you would have to take any obligations you aren't ready for."

Tony catches a dry laugh in his throat then lets out a deep sigh. He was almost cursing the fact that it was him who wanted to figure things out as soon as possible.

"Right. Stark Industries."

"Don't let Olivia scam you out of anything." Clint pipes in, shifting in the uncomfortable chair and providing even more of his advice. "I've seen you around a computer. You're gonna be able to do some crazy stuff there."

Tony groans and sweeps his palm over his forehead.

"Where is Olivia?"

"She left about an hour ago, I'm assuming to head back to Stark Tower. Even that," Clint waves his hand as if unsure of how exactly to refer to everything that has happened. "Wasn't going to keep her away from her work."

A feminine "ahem" sounds from the doorway.

"I wouldn't say that completely." Olivia Stane says, crossing her arms and leaning against the doorway.

"Hello, Olivia." Steve actually does pretty well at not letting too much ice gather in his voice. Things are definitely still sore.

"I came about Tony."

"You think there's anyway you're going to be allowed to adopt the kid after what you just pulled?" Bruce laughs.

"First of all, I was doing the right thing by trying to get Tony out of that mission. The entire thing was blown and too much time would have been wasted by the suspicions my intern made sure were put on me. I don't regret that. Second of all, no. No, I don't expect to be able to keep that offer open, I'm sorry Tony, as I've already almost been put on suspension from my position as a SHIELD consultant and put under a severe microscope for who knows how long."

"Then, what is it?" Tony tries to cut through the words himself.

"That room is still open in Stark Towers. There is still a lot I have to show you about our company. We need another Stark in the tech development department. Badly."

"I thought it was made clear to you-"

Widow is stopped amid her own sharp interruption by Stane who hadn't been able to finish her thought.

Natasha doesn't exactly look like the most pleasant person after being stopped.

"There's a reason I left so quickly before. Fury wanted a speak with me." Stane nods her head to Coulson. "I'm sure he knows somehow. Him and Fury are always so extremely buddy-buddy in that secret club of theirs."

All eyes go to Coulson, who doesn't seem all that happy at being called out so soon.

"The Director does have a compromise that might work out as the best option for everyone." Coulson starts, looking hard at Tony as if trying to read him. "But I'm not sure if this is really the time to-"

"No. No more waiting. I just want to know what's going on." Tony says, shaking his head. He doesn't look down or to the side anymore to cover up the fact that he's not as sure as himself about himself as he lets on.

"Okay," Coulson nods his head slowly. "But someone wants to talk to you first."

"Who?"

* * *

Fury slides his finger over the tablet. The data flies past his eyes and casts a reflection in his eyes like a mirror staring back at them.

A notification pops up on the top corner.

The Director pauses a moment before confirming it. This is not going to be the easiest conversation he's had today, though it's hard to believe Olivia could ever be outdone at anything she sets her mind to.

"Send him in." Fury mutters to himself and taps the alert.

Tony has a thick bandage wrapped around his arm as the door slides open in front of him, surprising the teen and sending his jumping back.

"Hello there, Tony."

"Um, hi." The teen resists the urge to scratch his head while saying it.

"How are you doing?"

"Well, the pain meds are pretty good," Tony jokes and scratches around his bandage. He finally decides to walk forward to one of the chairs by the desk after a beat. "And not being kept captive by a crazy guy is a plus too."

"I should probably apologize for that. It might not have been the best option in the situation."

"It did suck pretty badly." Tony murmurs, just a bit under his breath.

"Though, it sort itself out rather nicely."

It takes a moment for him to completely process that statement. And to come up with an adequate response is also...taxing. Tony has to admit that he owes at least something to the man in black in front of him. Somehow. He's pretty sure anyway.

"Excuse me?"

"It all depends on how you look at it. Everyone is still alive. Dr. Albrecht is in custody. The Stark laptop has been successfully put to rest." Fury pauses, raising an eyebrow. "Correct?"

Tony finally notices the tablet in the man's hand.

"About which one?"

Fury sets the piece of tech down in front of him and leans forward, his elbows resting on the desk in front of his. The director obviously knows exactly what he is doing from the look on his face, but there's something else to it also that's a little bit harder to discern.

It's like he's waiting for Tony to say it.

Okay, he's definitely doing that.

"My parents are gone, Dr. Albrecht has ruined enough lives to last his entire lifetime already I imagine, and the laptop was more dead from the start then put to rest." Tony lists off and ticks off each item with his fingers with a blank look, trying to come up with whatever the director had wanted to get from this conversation.

"There are at least two things in that list you can help rectify."

"There's definitely one I can't." The younger says as humorlessness as he can muster.

"So, what are you going to choose to focus on?"

"Is this your subtle way of asking if I want-"

Fury holds up a hand.

"I'm not and never going to _ask_ you to do anything with the Stark Laptop. All of our analysts agree that its material is either completely nothing or too advanced for them at the moment. They truly don't know what can be done with it yet and it's simply being stated that you have…" The man stops for just a moment as if grasping the right word to choose. "Permission to look at it if you ever wish to in the future."

All of the terrible things that had come from that laptop rise up to the forefront of Tony's mind. And all of the less terrible. The lists are both so long that the genius doesn't even attempt to try to go through it at this point.

"Good to know." Tony finally settles on.

"Okay," Fury's shoulders relax a bit. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering where exactly you'll be ending up now that the current danger over your head has disappeared."

"Just a little."

"Well, as it turns out, you might not be the only one that's going to switch around your living arrangements." Fury starts, the sudden buzzing of what must be a phone interrupting him.

He pulls it out of his jacket pocket, the slick black material of the phone and the jacket making them both almost indecipherable of when one starts and one ends until Fury stretches out his arm in front of him to look at the screen.

"Actually," Tony starts before Fury has a chance to look up from the phone. "There's somewhere I need to go too before any of the other stuff gets put into place."

The director looks up to Tony.

"I thought you might be saying that. There's an open helicopter waiting for you."

* * *

Clint ends up having to pick the lock to get the door open and it jerks from the sudden force.

It takes a great deal of effort for Tony not to snort at the pink warning of eviction paper stuck to its front, though he can tell that the others don't exactly find it quite as funny. The effort it took for them to keep silent their disagreeances of just the outside of his old apartment building seemed pretty extreme.

He couldn't really blame them.

The building is just two stories sitting lamely behind a parking lot. It looked more like a gray motel then anything else except with more cracked windows, piles of clothing and trash sitting outside of doors, and suspicious glances from everyone you passed.

Not that he could blame those residences about being suspicious of their group.

It isn't normal to see such of big group of clean, cop-walking people walking through the halls.

Tony gives one last glance around the outside before shooing everyone in as quickly as possible. The three Avengers squeeze in, their gazes scanning the room.

It's not much to look at with an air mattress in the corner and plastic storage boxes being used to the side of the room as temporary work tables with deconstructed burner phones and broken microwaves. A lone laptop that Tony had spent months saving up for was sticking out just an inch from where Tony had tried to hide it under his stack of cheap, packaged foods in the other corner.

"So, this is the old place." Tony starts, tugging at his collar unconsciously.

"It's very...There's a really open floor plan that's nice." Bruce starts, probably realizing at that moment that he doesn't have any else appropriate to say about the room now.

"I get that a lot."

"Bruce." Clint's voice rings with a warning. "This place is a total craphole."

"Okay, well."

"No." Clint stops Bruce from trying to defends himself. "No excuses." The archer turns to Tony. "I can understand why you might have thought this was an option. Survival and all. But you should not have lived here."

"I know."

"You know?" It's apparently Steve's turn. "You're sixteen, Tony."

"I know."

"Dammit." Steve says sharply, shaking his head and slightly surprising Tony with the outburst. The teen had barely ever heard the man curse around him.

"Dammit's right." Widow crosses her arms. "You do realize why Fury wanted us to see here."

"Olivia was probably in on it too."

"Well, okay, it was my idea. I needed to come here and get some stuff." Tony tells them, not following the conversation as well as he had hoped to. He moves over to one of the corners and pulls out his laptop and holds it up to them as one of the things he had wanted to retrieve. He would be needing it.

"I'm sure you did." Bruce tells the teen. "But I'm also sure we would have been led here anyway."

"Will someone please fill me in on what you're talking about?" Tony asks and clears away some of the junk wires on one of the plastic containers so he can open it up and check what's inside.

He's rewarded by the sight of dozens of full notebooks waiting for him.

"Okay, Tony." Steve starts. "You've been waiting for an answer on what's going to happen now. We've all kind of been. Olivia and Fury came up with a solution that none of us were exactly sure of at first. That's why Olivia wanted us to see this place." Steve pauses. "I shouldn't have said it like that."

"It's fine. Just keep going."

"Let me just explain why we had our doubts." Steve tries.

"We don't want Olivia to be able to take advantage of anything." Clint butts in, but lets Steve take control back rather quickly of the conversation.

"Olivia has offered Stark Towers as a base for not only her but the Avengers as a unit. Fury and Coulson have been looking for somewhere for a long time as the helicarrier moves around too much for us to always be able to go where we need to and-"

"You guys are going to move in Stark Tower?" Tony asks and gets a nod from Natasha.

"And you will too."

Tony bursts out laughing. He really can't help himself.

* * *

 **Some Time Later...**

Tony stuffs his hands deeper into his jacket pockets against the wind.

He looks out over the railing to New York City glowing beneath him, a sight that he had barely ever seen despite living in the city for so long.

It's weird to be living here.

There are people around all the time. All the time. He's suspicious that the Avengers have like some kind of guard duty going around whenever Olivia's on the living level with them.

It'll probably start going down once they all get comfortable with the idea and Olivia in general. Tony's pretty sure she won't be betraying them any time some. Pretty sure.

Olivia had set him up with his first private tutor in what he is assuming now is going to end up as a long, long line of people. This one has already proven himself to be a complete moron, using a calculator to solve basic six decimal point division. It was like the middle ages in there.

"I would tell you it might not be such a good idea to be sitting out here so close to the edge, but you're probably a little too old for any of that stuff."

"Probably too old?"

Tony looks behind him up to Steve.

"How did your lessons go today?"

"I think I finally understand the meaning of life now." The teen starts sarcastically as Capt. leans against the railing himself.

"It couldn't have been that bad."

Tony shrugs his shoulders, repressing a small smirk that proves it really wasn't that bad to Steve.

"How was whatever you did today?"

"I'm guessing it would be really, really inappropriate for any of us to share information as classified as that," Steve starts. "So, ask Clint the next time you see him."

"Got it." Tony nods his head.

"How's everything else going?"

The seriousness of that light statement isn't lost on the teen.

"Good, I think." He lets the end of the sentence fizzle out, trying to decide whether to continue on with thought that had been bothering him for a while. "So, you knew Howard Stark pretty well, right?"

Steve blinks, memories coming up from a long time ago.

"Back in the day, yes."

"Okay," Tony blows out a puff of air in the night air. "Good to know."

The Avenger waits another moment to see if Tony is going to follow up with a question. Any question. He's met with silence, though, and decides that there's plenty of time for that later on.

"I think the others might be planning to play a movie later on. Clint make us watch something every once in awhile."

"Is it going to be a lame one?"

"It might be Bruce's turn to pick."

"Erg. Fine. I'm in."

* * *

 **The End.**

 **Thanks to everyone who has followed/favorited/reviewed this story. I would never have been able to finish it without you guys.**


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